Information processsing device and method, program, and recording medium

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, a program, and a recording medium that facilitate, for example, identification of information recorded on an recording medium. In a disc formatting process 211, a disc-metadata-file creating unit 181 creates a disc-metadata file including various types of label information, using a PROAV-ID copying unit 192 and a representative-image setting unit 194. Furthermore, in a disc-metadata updating process 212, a disc-metadata-file managing unit 182 updates the disc-metadata file, for example, using the representative-image setting unit 194. A disc-metadata-file recording controller 183 executes a process of comparing PROAV IDs using a PROAV-ID comparing unit 193, and records the disc-metadata file on a disc 132 when the PROAV IDs match. The present invention can be applied to an editing apparatus.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to information processing apparatuses andmethods, programs, and recording media. More specifically, the presentinvention relates to an information processing apparatus and method, aprogram, and a recording medium that allow, for example, informationrecorded on an recording medium to be more readily identified.

BACKGROUND ART

It has hitherto been the case to record material data, such as imagedata and audio data obtained by imaging and recording, on tape devicessuch as videotapes. Recently, however, digitization of information is inprogress in accordance with improvement in information processingtechniques, and optical discs such as DVDs (Digital Versatile Discs) arecoming to be used as recording media.

On an optical disc as such a recording medium, material data is managedin the form of files on the basis of a file system such as the UDF(Universal Disk Format). Thus, for example, a playback apparatus thatplays back material data searches for the material data that is to beplayed back from the optical disc mounted on a drive, using the name ofa path from the root directory (hereinafter referred to as an absolutepath) and the file name of the file of the material data, and reads andplays back the material data.

However, for example, in the case of an editing apparatus for editingmaterial data, in some cases, material data recorded on the optical discis read by the editing apparatus and is recorded on a hard disc or thelike included in the editing apparatus, or material data stored in thehard disc is written to the optical disc. Thus, the directory structurefor managing the material data is not necessarily limited to one type,so that it is difficult to locate the directory in which the materialdata exists by specifying material data using an absolute path name or afile name. This could raise the problem of complexity in the method ofsearching for material data.

As opposed to the above case, according to another method, material datais specified using a UMID (Unique Material IDentifier). The UMID is astandard identifier defined by the SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture andTelevision Engineers), and it is an identifier for globally uniqueidentification of AV (Audio Visual) material or the like. That is, byusing the UMID, material data can be identified regardless of themanagement location (directory) thereof, so that it is possible tospecify target material data regardless of the directory, by managingassociation between the UMID and the directory where the material datais managed.

Now, the UMID will be described.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example data structure of the UMID. Asshown in FIG. 1, a 64-byte extended UMID (Extended UMID) 10 is composedof a basic UMID (Basic UMID) 11 composed of 32-byte basic information,and a 32-byte source pack 12 constituting user's signature information.The basic UMID 11 is composed of a 12-byte universal label 21, a 1-bytelength value (L) 22, a 3-byte instance number 23, and a 16-byte materialnumber. The source pack 12 is composed of an 8-byte time/date 25, a12-byte geographic coordinates 26, a 4-byte country 27, a 4-byteorganization 28, and a 4-byte user 29.

The universal label 21 includes information indicating that the ID is anSMID defined by the SMPTE, which allows globally unique identificationof data. Furthermore, the universal label 21 includes informationindicating a type of material data specified by the UMID or a method ofcreating the material number 24. The length value (L) 22 is 1-byteinformation defining the length of the remaining part of the UMID, andthe value thereof is set to 13H in hexadecimal representation in thecase of the basic UMID, and 33H in hexadecimal representation in thecase of the extended UMID. The instance number 23 is information foridentifying instances of a plurality of material data with the samematerial number 24 (of the same clip), and it is information providing alink between each instance in the clip and externally associatedmetadata. The material number 24 is an ID number that is used foridentification of each clip. Among instances within a clip, the materialnumber is the same. The material number 24 will be described later withreference to FIG. 2.

The time/date 25 of the source pack 12 is composed of date informationspecified by a Julian date, time information, information regarding aframe, and so forth. The geographic coordinates 26 are informationrepresenting position information at the time of generation of thematerial data, for example, by GPS information such as an altitude, alatitude, and a longitude. The country 27 is information regarding thenationality of the creator of the material data. The organization 28 isinformation regarding the name of an organization to which the creatorof the material data belongs. The user ID is the name of the creator ofthe material data, represented by alphanumeric characters.

FIG. 2 shows an example structure of the material number 24. As shown inFIG. 2, the 16-byte material number 24 is composed of an 8-byte timesnap 31, a 2-byte random number 32, and a 6-byte network-node number 33.

As shown in FIG. 3, the time snap 31 is composed of 4-byte (32-bit) timeinformation 41 representing an integer value corresponding to a temporalposition of the recording time of the material data in a day (i.e., avalue in the case where 24 hours is represented by 32 bits), andJulian-date information 42 representing the recording data of thematerial data by the number of dates counted from Nov. 17, 1858. Therandom number 32 is information that is used to prevent collision of thematerial number with other clips, for example, when setting of timeinformation in an apparatus that creates material data is not accurate.The network-node number 33 is information for identifying an apparatusused to record the material data, and is represented using a MACaddress, which is a unique number assigned to every NIC (NetworkInterface Card). For example, in the case of the Ethernet(R), the former24 bits represent an address specific to each vendor, managed by theIEEE, and the latter 24 bits represent a number specific to each NIC,assigned by each vendor.

The structure of the material number 24 may be different from thestructure described above. For example, a material number composed of atime snap, version information, a UUID identification number, a randomnumber, and a network-node number, used in AAF (Advanced AuthoringFormat) or UUID (Universally Unique Identifier), may be used, as shownin FIG. 4. Alternatively, a material number including an SMPTE userlabel may be used, as shown in FIG. 5. Information representing which ofthese structures is used is indicated in the universal label 21.

A clip is a unit representing a single material-data creating processsuch as imaging process or a recording process, and it indicates a timebetween the start and end of the single material-data creating process(e.g., in the case of an imaging process, the time between the start andend of imaging), or an amount of data of various types of data obtainedby the material-data creating process. Furthermore, the clip sometimesalso refers to the set of various types of data itself. The clip hereinrefers to the set of various types of data obtained by a singlematerial-data creating process.

As described above, the UMID is composed of a combination of a largenumber of pieces of information, and the use of the UMID allows globallyunique identification of material data under any environment. Forexample, an editing apparatus manages UMIDs of pieces of material dataand the path names of directories in which the pieces of material dataare managed in association with each other, so that it is possible tosearch for a piece of material data associated with a specified UMID.

However, when a plurality of optical discs having recorded materialthereon as described above exists, it has not been possible for the userto readily recognize which material data is recorded on which opticaldisc among the optical discs.

For example, when the user uses a playback apparatus to search for andplay back target material data from a plurality of optical discs using aUMID, the user has to repeatedly mount the optical discs one by one on adrive of the playback apparatus, search for the target material data,for example, by using the UMID, and dismount the disc from the drive andmount a next optical disc when the material data is not found, and soforth, until the target material data is found. This could involvelaborious operations.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The present invention has been made in view of the situation describedabove, and it serves to improve convenience of a recording medium, forexample, to facilitate identification of information recorded on arecording medium.

An information processing apparatus according to the present inventioncomprises copying means for copying an identifier for identifying aformat that is managed by a first file for managing information recordedon a recording medium, the identifier being included in the first file;creating means for creating a second file including the identifiercopied by the copying means and label information describing content ofdata; and recording means for recording the second file created by thecreating means in the format on the recording medium, as a file that isdifferent from the first file.

The label information may include information regarding a representativeframe image representing all the frame images of image data included inthe recording medium.

The information processing apparatus may further comprise setting meansfor setting the label information, so that the creating means createsthe second file including the identifier copied by the copying means andthe label information set by the setting means.

The setting means may selectively set the representative frame imagefrom representative frame images of respective clips recorded on therecording medium.

The setting means may set a beginning frame image of a beginning clip asthe representative frame image when no instruction for setting therepresentative frame image is given.

The information processing apparatus may further comprise comparingmeans for comparing an identifier included in the second file with anidentifier included in the first file recorded on the recording medium,so that the recording means records the second file in the format on therecording medium only when it is determined as a result of comparison bythe comparing means that the identifier included in the second filecoincides with the identifier included in the first file.

The information processing apparatus may further comprise reading meansfor reading the second file from the recording medium; and updatingmeans for updating the label information included in the second fileread by the reading means; so that the comparing means compares anidentifier included in the second file whose label information has beenupdated by the updating means with an identifier included in the firstfile recorded on the recording means, and so that the recording meansrecords the second file in the format on the recording medium only whenit is determined as a result of comparison by the comparing means thatthe identifier included in the second file coincides with the identifierincluded in the first file.

The recording medium may be an optical disc.

The recording medium may be a semiconductor memory.

An information processing method according to the present inventioncomprises a copying step of copying an identifier for identifying aformat that is managed by a first file for managing information recordedon a recording medium, the identifier being included in the first file;a creating step of creating a second file including the identifiercopied by processing in the copying step and label informationdescribing content of data; and a recording controlling step ofexercising control so that the second file created by processing in thecreating step is recorded in the format on the recording medium, as afile that is different from the first file.

A program according to the present invention allows a computer toexecute a copying step of copying an identifier for identifying a formatthat is managed by a first file for managing information recorded on arecording medium, the identifier being included in the first file; acreating step of creating a second file including the identifier copiedby processing the copying step and label information describing contentof data; and a recording controlling step of exercising control so thatthe second file created by processing in the creating step is recordedin the format on the recording medium, as a file that is different fromthe first file.

In a recording medium according to the present invention, a first fileincluding an identifier for identifying a format on the recordingmedium, the first file serving to manage data in the format, and asecond file including an identifier tht is the same as the identifier,the second file further including label information describing contentof data in the format, are recorded in the format as mutually differentfiles.

According to the information processing apparatus and method, program,and recording medium of the present invention, an identifier foridentifying a format that is manged by a first file for managinginformation recorded on a recording medium, the identifier beingincluded in the first file, is copied, a second file including theidentifier copied and label information describing content of data iscreated, and the second file created is recorded in the format on therecording medium, as a file that is different from the first file.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example structure of an extended UMID.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed example structure of a materialnumber shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a detailed example structure of a time snapshown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another detailed example structure of thematerial number shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing yet another detailed example structure ofthe material number shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example construction of an editingapparatus 100 according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a detailed example construction of aninformation holding unit shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a detailed example construction of aplayback controller shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a detailed example construction of arecording controller shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing relationship amongprocesses executed by components shown in FIGS. 7 to 9.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining a disc formatting process.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining an index-file creating process.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining a PROAV-ID creating process.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing an example structure of a PROAV ID.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a more detailed example structure of thematerial number of the UMID.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of XML description of an indexfile.

FIG. 17 is a diagram subsequent to FIG. 16, showing an example of XMLdescription of an index file.

FIG. 18 is a diagram subsequent to FIG. 17, showing an example of XMLdescription of an index file.

FIG. 19 is a diagram subsequent to FIG. 18, showing an example of XMLdescription of an index file.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart for explaining a disc-metadata-file creatingprocess.

FIG. 21 is a table showing a list of elements that can constitute adisc-metadata file.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example directory structure in a discshown in FIG. 6.

FIG. 23 is a diagram showing a more detailed example structure of thedirectory structure shown in FIG. 22.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing a more detailed example structure of thedirectory structure shown in FIG. 22.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart for explaining a disc-metadata-file updatingprocess.

FIG. 26 is a diagram for explaining an example of the manner of thedisc-metadata-file updating process.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart for explaining a clip adding process.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an example of XML description of aclip-information file.

FIG. 29 is a diagram subsequent to FIG. 28, showing an example of XMLdescription of a clip-information file.

FIG. 30 is a flowchart for explaining an edit-list adding process.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing an example of XML description of anedit-list file.

FIG. 32 is a block diagram showing an example construction of a playbackapparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart for explaining a disc loading process.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart for explaining a clip searching process.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram showing another example construction of aplayback apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 36 is a block diagram showing yet another example construction of aplayback apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart for explaining a clip searching process.

FIG. 38 is a block diagram showing yet another example construction of aplayback apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart for explaining a clip searching process.

FIG. 40 is a diagram for explaining information recorded in a disc, amethod of using the information, and so forth.

FIG. 41 is a block diagram showing an example construction of arecording and playback apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 42 is a block diagram showing an example construction of anembodiment of a computer according to the present invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Now, embodiments of the present invention will be described withreference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example construction of an editingapparatus according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 111 of an editingapparatus 100 executes various types of processes according to programsstored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) 112. A RAM (Random Access Memory) 113stores data, programs, and so forth as needed for the execution ofvarious types of processes by the CPU 111.

An information holding unit 114 is a storage unit for temporarilystoring information, and is implemented by a semiconductor memory or thelike. The information holding unit 114 holds information such asinformation regarding material data recorded on a disc 132 describedlater, read from the disc 132, and it provides information held thereinor obtains new information under the control of a playback controller115, a recording controller 116, or the like.

The playback controller 115 controls a drive 126 via a bus 117 and aninput/output interface 120 to execute processing for controlling readingof various types of information from the disc 132 mounted on the drive126. For example, the playback controller 115 exercises control to readinformation regarding data recorded on the disc 132 and to supply theinformation to the information holding unit 114. The recordingcontroller 116 executes processing for controls the drive 126 via thebus 117 and the input/output interface 120 to execute processing forcontrolling writing of various types of information to the disc 132mounted on the drive 126. For example, the recording controller 116exercises control to record data held by the information holding unit114 on the disc 132.

The CPU 111, the ROM 112, the RAM 113, the information holding unit 114,the playback controller 115, and the recording controller 116 areconnected to each other via the bus 117. Also, a timekeeping unit 118 isconnected to the bus 117. The timekeeping unit 118 calculates a currenttime on the basis of an output of a real-time clock that is implemented,for example, by an internal crystal resonator, and in response to arequest from the CPU 111, the playback controller 115, the recordingcontroller 116, or the like, it supplies information representing thecurrent time to the source of the request.

Furthermore, the input/output interface 120 is connected to the bus 117.The input/output interface 120 is connected to an input unit 121including a keyboard and a mouse, and it outputs signals input to theinput unit 121 to the CPU 111. Also, the input/output interface 120 isconnected to an output unit 122 implemented by a display, a speaker, andso forth.

Furthermore, the input/output interface 120 is connected to a storageunit 123 implemented by a magnetic drive such as a hard disc or by anEEPROM (Electronically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory), andto a communication unit 124 for carrying out data communications withother apparatuses via an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineers) 1394 network or the like. On the drive 125, programs, dataneeded for the execution of programs, and so forth, read from aremovable medium 131 implemented by a recording medium such as amagnetic disc, an optical disc, a magneto-optical disc, or asemiconductor memory, are recorded.

The drive 126 reads material data such as image data or audio data fromthe disc 132 mounted on the drive 126, or records material data on thedisc 132 mounted on the drive 126.

The disc 132 is, for example, an optical disc on which a large volume ofdata (e.g., 27 gigabytes) can be recorded using a blue-violet laser witha numerical aperture (NA) of 0.85 and a wavelength of 405 nm at arecording density with a minimum mark length of 0.14 μm and a trackpitch of 0.32 μm. The disc 132 may be other types of recording medium,for example, various types of optical discs such as DVD-RAM (DigitalVersatile Disc-Random Access Memory), DVD-R (DVD-Recordable), DVD-RW(RVD-ReWritable), DVD+R (DVD+Recordable), DVD+RW (DVD+ReWritable), CD-R(Compact Disc-Recordable), or CD-RW (CD-ReWritable).

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a detailed example construction of theinformation holding unit 114 shown in FIG. 6. Referring to FIG. 7, theinformation holding unit 114 includes an index-file holding unit 151 forholding an index file that is used for unitary management of informationrecorded on the disc 132, and a disc-metadata-file holding unit 152 forholding a disc-metadata file including label information describing thecontent of the disc 132. The information holding unit 14 also holds, forexample, various types of data to be recorded on the disc 132 ormaterial data read from the disc 132, as well as the index file and thedisc-metadata file described above.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a detailed example construction of theplayback controller 115 shown in FIG. 6. Referring to FIG. 8, theplayback controller 115 includes an index-file reading unit 161 thatexecutes processing for reading an index file and storing the index filein the index-file holding unit 151 shown in FIG. 7, and adisc-metadata-file reading unit 162 that executes processing for readinga disc-metadata file from the disc 132 mounted on the drive 126 andstoring the disc-metadata file in the disc-metadata-file holding unit152 shown in FIG. 7. The playback controller 115 also reads and playsback files other than the index file and the disc-metadata file from thedisc 132, for example, files of material data such as image data oraudio data or files of metadata.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a detailed example construction of therecording controller 116 shown in FIG. 6. Referring to FIG. 9, therecording controller 116 includes an index-file creating unit 171 thatexecutes processing for creating an index file, an index-file managingunit 172 for managing an index file held in the index-file holding unit151, an index-file recording controller 173 for recording the index fileheld in the index-file holding unit 151 on the disc 132 mounted on thedrive 126, a UMID creating unit 174 for creating a UMID, adisc-metadata-file creating unit 181 that executes processing forcreating a disc-metadata file, a disc-metadata-file managing unit 182for managing a disc-metadata file held in the disc-metadata-file holdingunit 152, a disc-metadata-file recording controller 183 for recordingthe disc-metadata file held in the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152on the disc 132 mounted on the drive 126, a PROAV-ID creating unit 191for creating an ID for identifying the disc 132 (PROAV ID), a PROAV-IDcopying unit 192 for copying a PROAV ID included in an index file, aPROAV-ID comparing unit 193 for comparing the PROAV ID included in theindex file and a PROAV ID included in a disc-metadata file, and arepresentative-image setting unit 194 for setting a frame imagerepresentative of all the frame images of material data recorded on thedisc 132 (representative image).

The recording controller 116 executes processing for controlling thedrive 126 to record material data such as image data or audio data onthe disc 132 mounted on the drive 126, and executes processing forcausing the index-file creating unit 171 to create an index file, theindex-file managing unit 172 to manage the index file held in theindex-file holding unit 151, or the index-file recording controller 173to record the index file held in the index-file holding unit 151 on thedisc 132 via the drive 126.

The UMID creating unit 174 of the recording controller 116 creates aUMID for a clip or an edit list when the clip or the edit list iscreated.

Furthermore, the recording controller 116 executes processing forcausing the disc-metadata-file creating unit 181 to create adisc-metadata file, the disc-metadata-file managing unit 182 to manage adisc-metadata file held in the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152, andfor recording the disc-metadata file held in the disc-metadata-fileholding unit 152 on the disc 132 via the drive 126.

The PROAV-ID creating unit 191 of the recording controller 116 creates aPROAV ID, which is information included in an index file and whichserves as an ID for the entire data recorded on the disc 132, when theindex file is created by the index-file creating unit 171.

As will be described later, a single PROAV directory is created on thedisc 132. Under the PROAV directory, various types of files are locatedand managed. The PROAV ID is used as an ID for identifying a set offiles (hereinafter referred to as a format) that is managed under adirectory structure created by a single formatting process. Usually, theformatting process described later is executed on the entire storagearea of the disc 132, and only the single format (the directorystructure of and under the PROAV directory, which will be describedlater) exists on the disc 132. However, as will be described later, theediting apparatus 100 can remove a format existing on the disc 132 andcreate a new format on the disc 132 by executing a formatting process.The PROAV ID is an ID for identifying a format that is created on thedisc 132, and it is not an ID of the disc 132 as hardware. Thus, when anew format is created by executing a formatting process as describedabove, a new PROAV ID is created and assigned to the format. That is,the PROAV ID for the single disc 132 is not fixed.

The PROAV-ID creating unit 191 creates a PROAV ID, which is an ID forsuch a format. The PROAV ID is recorded on an index file, and is used,for example, for searching of a clip or an edit list. Furthermore, aswill be described later, the PROAV ID is also recorded on adisc-metadata file, and it is used when the disc-metadata file isupdated, for checking whether the disc-metadata file is associated withdata recorded on the disc 132.

The PROAV-ID copying unit 192 creates a PROAV ID by copying a PROAV IDin an index file when a disc-metadata file is created by thedisc-metadata-file creating unit 181. When a disc-metadata file isrecorded by the disc-metadata-file recording controller 183, thePROAV-ID comparing unit 193 compares a PROAV ID of the disc-metadatafile to be recorded and a PROAV ID of an index file recorded on the disc32.

The representative-image setting unit 194 sets a representative image ofmaterial data (image data) recorded on the disc 132, according to auser's instruction or the like.

The relationship among the functions of the components described withreference to FIGS. 7 to 9 will be described with reference to afunctional block diagram shown in FIG. 10.

An index processing unit 201 for executing processing regarding an indexfile includes the index-file holding unit 151, the index-file readingunit 161, the index-file creating unit 171, the index-file managing unit172, the index-file recording controller 173, and the PROAV-ID creatingunit 191.

For example, when a disc formatting process 211 is executed to start aformatting process for the disc 132, the PROAV-ID creating unit 191creates a PROAV ID, and the index-file creating unit 171 creates anindex file, which is management information of files recorded on thedisc 132, using the PROAV ID. The index file created is supplied to theindex-file recording controller 173 via the index-file holding unit 151,and is recorded on the disc 132 mounted on the drive 126.

When the disc 132 having recorded thereon image data, audio data, or thelike is mounted on the drive 126, the index-file reading unit 161 readsan index file from the disc 132 and stores the index file in theindex-file holding unit 151.

When a clip/edit-list updating process 213 is executed so that a clipcomposed of image data, audio data, or the like, or an edit list, whichis editing information of a clip, is created and recorded on the disc132, the UMID creating unit 174 creates a UMID associated with the clipor edit list created, and the index-file managing unit 172 updates theindex file held in the index-file holding unit 151 by adding informationregarding the clip or edit list to be recorded.

When the index file has been updated as described above, the index-filerecording controller 173 reads the index file from the index-fileholding unit 151 and records the index file on the disc 132.

A disc-metadata processing unit 202 for executing processing regardingdisc metadata includes the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152, thedisc-metadata-file reading unit 162, the disc-metadata-file creatingunit 181, the disc-metadata-file managing unit 182, thedisc-metadata-file recording controller 183, the PROAV-ID copying unit192, the PROAV-ID comparing unit 193, and the representative-imagesetting unit 194.

For example, when a disc formatting process 211 is executed to start aformatting process of the disc 132, using the PROAV-ID copying unit 192and the representative-image setting unit 194, the disc-metadata-filecreating unit 181 creates various types of label information, creates adisc-metadata file, and stores the disc-metadata file in thedisc-metadata-file holding unit 152.

That is, the PROAV-ID copying unit 192 copies a PROAV ID of an indexfile held in the index-file holding unit 151, and sets the PROAV ID as aPROAV ID to be recorded in the disc-metadata file. Furthermore, therepresentative-image setting unit 194 sets a beginning frame image of abeginning clip of material data recorded on the disc 132 as arepresentative image of the disc 132. The disc-metadata-file creatingunit 181 creates a disc-metadata file using various types of labelinformation including these pieces of setting information, and storesthe disc-metadata file in the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152.

The disc-metadata-file recording controller 183 records thedisc-metadata file held in the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152 onthe disc 132 mounted on the drive 126.

When a disc-metadata updating process 212 is executed, thedisc-metadata-file reading unit 162 reads a disc-metadata file from thedisc 132 mounted on the drive 126, and supplies the disc-metadata fileto the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152 so that it is held therein.The disc-metadata-file managing unit 182 updates the disc-metadata fileheld in the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152, for example, using therepresentative-image setting unit 194. The disc-metadata-file recordingcontroller 183 uses the PROAV-ID comparing unit 193 to compare the PROAVID of the disc-metadata file updated and the PROAV ID of the index filerecorded on the disc 132. When these PROAV IDs match, thedisc-metadata-file recording controller 183 determines that the contentof the disc-metadata file to be recorded is information associated withdata recorded on the disc 132, and records the disc-metadata file on thedisc 132.

As described above, in accordance with operation instructions,components relevant to the respective instructions cooperate to executethe operations instructed.

By recording label information that serves as a label of contentrecorded on the disc 132 as a disc-metadata file on the disc 132, theuser of the editing apparatus 100 (including a playback apparatus, arecording apparatus, a management apparatus, an information processingapparatus, a recording and playback apparatus, or the like) for usingdata recorded on the disc 132 can more readily identify informationrecorded on the disc 132, by referring to the label information recordedon the disc 132.

Furthermore, when the disc-metadata file read from the disc 132 isupdated and then recorded on the disc 132, by comparing the PROAV IDincluded in the disc-metadata file and the PROAV ID of the index file tocheck whether the disc-metadata file to be recorded is associated withmaterial data recorded on the disc 132 before recording disc metadata,the editing apparatus 100 can record label information more accuratelyon the disc 132. Thus, more accurate label information can be providedto the user of the material data recorded on the disc 132.

Next, specific flows of the processes described above will be described.

When the execution of a formatting process for the disc 132 mounted onthe drive 126 is instructed, for example, by a user's operation of theinput unit 121, the components of the editing apparatus 100 shown inFIG. 6 start a disc formatting process.

The disc formatting process will be described with reference to aflowchart shown in FIG. 11.

First, in step S11, the recording controller 116 executes a UDF(Universal Disk Format) formatting process on the disc 132 mounted onthe drive 126 to execute a logical formatting process based on the UDF.Then, proceeding to step S12, the recording controller 116 creates aPROAV directory under a root directory in the disc 132 on the basis ofthe UDF and records the PROAV directory on the disc 132. In step S13,the recording controller 116 creates a clip root directory forcontaining files of material data such as image data or audio data andfiles of information regarding the material data under the PROAVdirectory and records the clip root directory on the disc 132. In stepS14, under the PROAV directory, the recording controller 116 creates anedit-list root directory for containing editing results (editinginformation) yielded by non-destructive editing of a clip, which is aset of files of material data or the like stored under the clip rootdirectory, and records the edit-list root directory on the disc 132.

In step S15, the index-file creating unit 171 of the recordingcontroller 116 executes an index-file creating process to create anindex file using the XML (extensible Markup Language). After executingthe index-file creating process, the index-file creating unit 171proceeds to step S16. The index-file creating process will be describedlater in detail with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. 12.

In step S16, the disc-metadata-file creating unit 181 executes adisc-metadata-file creating process to create a disc-metadata file, andthe disc formatting process is exited. The index-file creating processwill be described later in detail with reference to a flowchart shown inFIG. 20.

As described above, during disc formatting, the components of theediting apparatus 1 create an index file for managing information ofeach file, and a disc-metadata file composed of label information of thedisc 132.

Next, the index-file creating process executed in step S15 shown in FIG.11 and described above will be described in detail with reference to aflowchart shown in FIG. 12.

First, in step S31, the index-file creating unit 171 controls thePROAV-ID creating unit 191 to execute a PROAV-ID creating process forcreating a PROAV ID included in an index file. The PROAV-ID creatingprocess will be described later in detail with reference to a flowchartshown in FIG. 13.

After creating the PROAV ID, in step S32, the index-file creating unit171 creates information other than the PROAV ID, such as a clip table oran edit table, and supplies the information to the index-file holdingunit 151 so that it is held therein. After the processing in step S32 isfinished, the index-file creating unit 171 exits the index-file creatingprocess, and the process returns to step S16 shown in FIG. 11.

Next, the PROAV-ID creating process executed in step S31 shown in FIG.12 will be described in detail with reference to a flowchart shown inFIG. 13.

First, in step S51, the PROAV-ID creating unit 191 of the recordingcontroller 116 requests the timekeeping unit 118 for current-timeinformation via the bus 117 to obtain the current-time information, andgenerates a 7-byte time snap. More specifically, the PROAV-ID creatingunit 191 represents 24 hours by 3 bytes (24 hours is equally dividedinto 16,777,216 units), converts the current-time information obtainedfrom the timekeeping unit 118 into the 3-byte representation (withimmediately preceding 0 o'clock o minutes 0 seconds 00 AM represented bya value “0”, the time elapsed from that time to the current time isdivided by a time obtained by equally dividing 24 hours into 16,777,216units), and adds the elapsed-time information to 4-byte date informationbased on the Julian date to generate a time snap.

Then, in step S52, the PROAV-ID creating unit 191 of the recordingcontroller 116 requests the communication unit 124 for anIEEE-1394-network node unique ID via the bus 117 and the input/outputinterface 120 to obtain the node unique ID. The communication unit 124can form a network with other devices via IEEE 1394, which is ahigh-speed serial interface, and communicate with other devices. Thecommunication unit 124, which is hardware having an IEEE-1394communication function, has assigned thereto in advance an 8-byte nodeunique ID for an IEEE-1394 network. The PROAV-ID creating unit 191requests the communication unit for 124 the node unique ID to obtain thenode unique ID.

After obtaining the node unique ID, proceeding to step S53, the PROAV-IDcreating unit 191 determines a 6-bit random number using the time snap.Then, the PROAV-ID creating unit 191 adds a 2-bit predetermined fixedvalue to the time snap, the node unique ID, and the random number,obtained by processing in steps S51 to S53, and creates a PROAV ID bycombining these items.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing an example structure of the PROAVID. In FIG. 14, a PROAV ID 220 is shown as a bit sequence of 8-bit(1-byte) segments, and each bit represented by “X” has a value of “0” or“1”. The values of the fourth to sixth bytes from the right arerepresented by hexadecimal numbers.

Referring to FIG. 14, the PROAV ID 220 is composed of, from the left, a7-bit time snap 221, a 2-bit fixed value 221, a 6-bit random number 223,and a 64-bit (8-byte) IEEE-1394 node unique ID.

In the time snap 221, the left three bytes (24 bits) are timeinformation, and the remaining 4 bytes (32 bits) are date informationbased on the Julius date (Julius-date information). That is, the timesnap 221 is the time snap 31 shown in FIG. 3 with the lowest 8 bits ofthe time information 41 omitted.

The fixed value 221 is composed of 2 bits having a predetermined valueof “11”. This value is a value for distinction from other IDs such asmaterial numbers of AAF, UUID, UMID, or the like. The random number 223is composed of a 6-bit value calculated using a time snap. The randomnumber is used to avoid a situation where a plurality of IDs with thesame creation time (the same IDs) is generated and respectively assignedto different formats, for example, when the time setting of theapparatus is incorrect.

The IEEE-1394 node unique ID 224 is a unique 64-bit identifier assignedin advance to an IEEE-1394 interface (hardware) that serves as a node inan IEEE-1394 network. In the case of the editing apparatus 100 shown inFIG. 6, it is assigned to an IEEE-1394 interface included in thecommunication unit 124. The high-order 24 bits of the IEEE-1394 nodeunique ID is an address unique to a manufacturer or a vendor of theinterface. In the IEEE-1394 node unique ID 224 shown in FIG. 14, inorder that the structure of the PROAV ID 220 be the same as thestructure of the material number 24 in the UMID shown in FIG. 2,adjustment is executed so that the position of the low-order 2 bytes (16bits) is two bytes from the left end of the IEEE-1394 node unique ID(the ninth and tenth bytes from the left in the entire PROAV ID 220).Thus, in the IEEE-1394 node unique ID 224 shown in FIG. 14, the fourthto sixth bytes from the left (24 bits represented by hexadecimal numbers“08”, “00”, and “46” in the figure) serve as the high-order 24 bits ofthe IEEE-1394 node unique ID.

FIG. 15 shows a detailed example construction of a material number in anUMID of the SMPTE. Referring to FIG. 15, a material number 230 iscomposed of a time snap 231, a 2-byte random number 233, and anetwork-node number 234. The rightmost 1 byte of the time snap 231 iscomposed of, from the left, a 2-bit setting value having a value of “10”and a 6-bit time-zone code (TZ code) 232.

Of the 2-bit setting value, the left one bit (the bit with a value of“1”) indicates that the date information in the time snap 231 is timeinformation based on the Julian date. In the case of a material numberof a UMID of the SMPTE, the right one bit has a value of “0”. Thetime-zone code (TZ code) 232 is a code representing a region fordetermining the time snap, and the time snap is created in accordancewith the standard time in the region.

The network-node number 234 is a MAC address of Ethernet(R), and thehigh-order 24 bits thereof (the 24 bits represented by the hexadecimalvalues of “08”, “00”, and “46” in FIG. 15) is a number unique to themanufacturer or vendor of the NIC.

As described above, the position of the high-order 24 bits of theIEEE-1394 node unique ID in the PROAV ID 220 shown in FIG. 14 and thehigh-order 24 bits of the network-node number 234 in the material number230 shown in FIG. 15 are both values representing a manufacturer or avendor of the interface, and are disposed at the same position. Thus,the editing apparatus 100 can process the PROAV ID 220 similarly to thecase of the material number of the UMID, and the editing apparatus 100can distinguish the ID from other IDs by referring to only a part of theID (i.e., the high-order 24 bits of the IEEE-1394 node unique ID of thePROAV ID 220) to check whether the value is a number unique to themanufacturer (vendor), and also to broadly classify the PROAV ID 220 onthe basis of the value (i.e., the name of the manufacturer (vendor)).Thus, for example, in a clip searching process, a disc-metadata-fileauthentication process, or the like, the load of the process can bereduced.

Although the number unique to the manufacturer or vendor is located atthe same position in the PROAV ID 220 and the material number 230 asdescribed above, the value of the fixed value 222 in the PROAV ID 220shown in FIG. 14 is “11”. On the other hand, the value of the settingvalue in the material number 230 shown in FIG. 15, located at the sameposition as the fixed number 222, is “10”. Thus, the editing apparatus100 can readily distinguish the PROAV ID 220 from IDs in which thenumber unique to the manufacturer or vendor is located at the sameposition, such as the material number 230. Thus, for example, in a clipsearching process, a disc-metadata-file authentication process, or thelike, the load of the process can be reduced.

After creating the PROAV ID as described above, the PROAV-ID creatingunit 191 exits the PROAV-ID creating process, and the process returns tostep S32 shown in FIG. 12.

Next, the index file created as described above will be described.

FIGS. 16 to 19 shows specific examples of description of the index file.In FIGS. 16 to 19, numerals at the beginnings of the lines are attachedfor convenience of description, and are not parts of XML description.

As described above, the index file is a file for unitarily managinginformation of files recorded in the disc 132. More specifically,information of files of and under the ProAV directory created in stepS12 shown in FIG. 11 (the entire format) is managed. The information offiles is described between a start tag on the 2nd row in FIG. 16 and anend tag on the 16th row in FIG. 19, and is broadly divided intoinformation regarding the entire format, information regarding clips,and information regarding edit lists.

The information regarding the entire format is written from the 1st rowto the 3rd row in FIG. 16. On the 1st row in FIG. 16, it is indicatedthat the description is based on the XML version “1.0” and that thecharacter encoding scheme is “UTF-8”. On the 2nd and 3rd rows, a starttag indicating the start of description of the index file is shown, anda namespace identifier used is described on the 2nd row.

The description on the 3rd line, ‘ProAVId=“0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF”’, indicates that the value of thePROAV ID, which is an ID assigned to this format (the PROAV directoryand under the PROAV directory) is “0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF”. Inthis example, each digit is represented by a hexadecimal number, so thata 16-byte PROAV ID is represented by 32 characters. The PROAV ID iswritten in the index file as described above.

As will be described later, clips stored under the clip root directoryare described in the form of a clip table between a start tag on the 4throw in FIG. 16 and an end tag on the 24th row in FIG. 24. As shown inFIGS. 16 to 18, in this case, four clips are stored under the clip rootdirectory. A first clip is written from the 6th row in FIG. 16 to the23rd row in FIG. 16, a second clip is written from the 25th row in FIG.16 to the 13th row in FIG. 17, a third clip is written from the 15th rowin FIG. 17 to the 3rd row in FIG. 18, and the fourth clip is writtenfrom the 5th row in FIG. 18 to the 23rd row in FIG. 18.

For example, information regarding the first clip is shown between astart tag from “<clip” on the 6th row to “>” on the 7th row in FIG. 16and an end tag “</clip>” on the 23rd row in FIG. 16, and informationregarding the first clip and the like is shown as attributes in thestart tag on the 6th and 7th rows in FIG. 16.

More specifically, id attribute indicated by ‘id=“C0001”’ is adescription representing an intra-disk ID, which is an identifier foridentifying each clip within the disc 132. In this example, it isindicated that an intra-disc ID “C0001” is assigned to the first clip.In the case of this example, as the intra-disc ID, an ID that is thesame as the name of the clip directory is assigned.

A umid attribute represented by‘umid=“0D12130000000000001044444484EEEE00E0188E130B”’ is a descriptionof a UMID, which is an identifier that is unique to a clip and thatallows globally unique identification of each clip, and it is indicatedthat “0D12130000000000001044444484EEEE00E0188E130B”, which is a part ofa basic UMID composed of 32 bytes, is assigned to the third clip. Inthis example, of the 32 bytes of the basic UMID, 22 bytes are shown,with 10 bytes in the 12-byte universal label omitted. Each of the digitsis represented by a hexadecimal number, so that the 22-byte UMID isrepresented by 44 characters. Obviously, the UMID used may be a 64-byteextended UMID.

A file attribute indicated by ‘file=“C0001C01.SMI”’ on the 7th row is adescription of the file name of a clip information file, which ismanagement information for managing a clip. In the case of FIG. 16, itis indicated that the file name of the clip information file of thefirst clip is “C0001C01.SMI”. An fps attribute indicated by‘fps=“59.94i”’ on the 7th row is a description of the resolution ofimage data with respect to a temporal-axis direction (i.e., the framefrequency of image data). The unit is “field/sec”, and informationindicating distinction between an interlaced scanning signal and aprogressive scanning signal is included as additional information. Inthe case of FIG. 16, it is indicated that the image data of the firstclip is an interlaced signal with a field frequency of 59.94 Hz (e.g.,NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) color signal).

A dur attribute indicated by ‘dur=“100000”’ on the 7th row is adescription of an effective length of the clip image data with respectto the temporal direction. The unit is the number of frames. All theframes of image data are not always played back or edited. For example,in some cases, some frames are excluded from processing on the basis ofmarks such as IN points and OUT points so that the other frames areeffective for playback or editing. The length of such a segment that isnot removed from data but is not processed is not included herein, andonly the length of effective segments in all the frames of the imagedata is indicated. In the case of FIG. 16, it is indicated that thelength of effective segments of the image data of the first clip is100000 frames.

A ch attribute indicated by ‘ch=“4”’ on the 7th row is a description ofthe number of channels of audio data included in the clip. That is, incase of FIG. 16, it is indicated that the first clip includes fourchannels of audio data.

An aspectRatio attribute indicated by ‘aspectRatio=“4:3”’ on the 7th rowis a description of an aspect ratio representing the ratio of thehorizontal length to the vertical length of a playback image of theimage data included in the clip. In the case of FIG. 16, it is indicatedthat the aspect ratio of a playback image of the image data included inthe first clip is 4 to 3.

Following the information regarding the entire first clip describedabove, on the 8th and 9th rows in FIG. 16, information regarding theimage data of the first clip is described, and on the 10th to 17th rowsin FIG. 16, information regarding the audio data of the four channels isdescribed on a channel-by-channel basis.

On the 18th and 19th rows in FIG. 16, information regarding a substream,which is material data composed of low-resolution image data and audiodata corresponding to the image data and audio data described above, isdescribed. On the 20th and 21st rows in FIG. 16, information regardingclip metadata, which is metadata attached to a clip, is described. Onthe 22nd row in FIG. 16, information regarding frame metadata, which isattached on a frame basis to the image data of the clip, is described.

Furthermore, for the second to fourth clips, similarly to the case ofthe first clip described above, information regarding each of the clips,and information regarding files constituting each of the clips aredescribed.

As described above, in the index file, information regarding clipsrecorded on the disc 132, and information regarding files constitutingeach of the clips are arranged in a table and are recorded in the formof a clip table.

The edit lists stored under the edit-list root directory are describedin the form of an edit-list table between a start tag on the 25th row inFIG. 18 and an end tag on the 15th row in FIG. 19. As shown in FIGS. 16to 19, in this case, four edit lists are stored under the edit-list rootdirectory. A first edit list is described from the 26th row in FIG. 18to the 1st row in FIG. 19. A second edit list is described from the 2ndrow in FIG. 19 to the 5th row in FIG. 19. A third edit list is describedfrom the 6th row in FIG. 19 to the 9th row in FIG. 19. A fourth editlist is described from the 10th row in FIG. 19 to the 14th row in FIG.19.

As described above, in the index file, information regarding edit listsrecorded on the disc 132 are arranged in a table and is recorded in theform of an edit-list table.

By executing processing in step S15 shown in FIG. 11, the index filedescribed in XML, shown in FIGS. 16 to 19, is generated and is recordedon the disc 132. At the time when the processing in step S15 shown inFIG. 11 is executed, clips or edit lists are not recorded on the disc132, so that the information regarding clips and edits lists, shown inFIGS. 16 to 19, does not exist. The editing apparatus 100 shown in FIG.6 can obtain information regarding clips and edit lists recorded on thedisc 132 by reading the index file from the disc 132 after recordingclips and edit lists on the disc 132.

As described above, by describing a PROAV ID in the index file, theediting apparatus 100 on which the disc 132 is mounted can exercisemanagement on the basis of each disc (each format) of material data.Thus, even when searching for a clip from a plurality of discs, theediting apparatus 100 can readily identify a target clip. Furthermore,when updating a disc-metadata file including label information or thelike, the editing apparatus 100 can readily recognize a disc associatedwith the disc-metadata file, and can provide more accurate labelinformation to the user.

Although the values of UMIDs assigned to the respective files are thesame in FIGS. 16 to 19, actually, UMIDs having different values areassigned, respectively. Furthermore, although examples of UMIDsrepresenting respective pieces of data are described, for example, onthe 6th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, 25th, 27th, and 29th rows inFIG. 16, the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 15th, 18th, 20th, 22nd, 24th, 26th, and28th rows in FIG. 17, the 5th, 8th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and26th rows in FIG. 18, and the 2nd, 6th, and 10th rows in FIG. 19 inFIGS. 16 to 19, these only indicate description positions or the like ofUMIDs, and these are virtual UMIDs with meaningless values. Actually,valid UMIDs created according to a method defined by the SMPTE aredescribed in place of the virtual UMIDs described above.

Similarly, although an example description of the PROAV ID is given onthe 3rd row in FIG. 16, this only represents description position or thelike of the PROAV ID, and is a virtual PROAV ID with a meaninglessvalue. Actually, a valid PROAV ID created according to the methoddescribed earlier is described in place of the virtual PROAV IDdescribed above.

Next, the disc-metadata file creating process executed in step S16 shownin FIG. 11 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.20.

First, in step S71, the PROAV-ID copying unit 192, under the control ofthe disc-metadata-file creating unit 181, copies the PROAV ID of theindex file held in the index-file holding unit 151 (the PROAV ID writtenon the 3rd row in FIG. 16), and proceeds to step S72.

In step S72, the disc-metadata-file creating unit 181 obtains labelinformation such as a title, which is, for example, input by a user'soperation of the input unit 121 and held in the information holding unit114, and proceeds to step S73.

In step S73, the representative-image setting unit 194, under thecontrol of the disc-metadata-file creating unit 181, checks whether arepresentative image of clips recorded on the disc 132 is specified, forexample, by the user. For example, when information representing user'sspecification of a representative image exists in the informationholding unit 114 and it is determined that a disc representative imageis specified, proceeding to step S74, the representative-image settingunit 194 sets a specified frame as a disc representative image on thebasis of the specification information. After setting the representativeimage, the representative-image setting unit 194 proceeds to step S76.

When it is determined in step S73 that a representative image is notspecified, proceeding to step S75, the representative-image setting unit194 sets the beginning frame of the beginning clip among clips recordedon the disc 132 as a disc representative image.

The beginning clip refers to a clip that is to be played back firstaccording to instructions in the XML description of the index file shownin FIGS. 16 to 19 (the first clip in the case of the example shown inFIGS. 16 to 19), and the beginning frame refers to a frame that is to beplayed back first according to, for example, the XML description of theindex file.

After setting the representative image, the representative-image settingunit 194 proceeds to step S76.

In step S76, the disc-metadata-file creating unit 181 creates adisc-metadata file using the pieces of information obtained as describedabove, and stores the disc-metadata file in the disc-metadata-fileholding unit 152. The PROAV-ID creating unit 191 controls thedisc-metadata-file recording controller 183 to record the disc-metadatafile held in the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152 on the disc 132,exits the disc-metadata-file creating process, and exits the discformatting process shown in FIG. 11.

Although not shown, the disc-metadata file is composed of an XMLdescription, similarly to the index file. Elements written in thedisc-metadata file are shown in a table 241 in FIG. 21.

The table 241 describes element names, element types, value formats orenumerated values, examples of values, occurrences, meanings, and inputmethods. In the “element name” column, names of elements that can bewritten in the disc-metadata file are shown, and “mainTitle”,“subtitle”, “otherTitle”, “CreationDate”, “userDate”, “userDefinedID”,“descriiption”, “typ”, and “PROAV ID” are shown from the top side. Inthe “element type” column, types of data of elements are shown. “nr”indicates that an element is composed of an arbitrary character string.“lib:dataTimeType” indicates that an element is composed of dateinformation and time information. “7 bitASCII” indicates that an elementis composed of ASCII characters (US-ASCII), which can be represented by7 bits. The number of characters represents a maximum number ofcharacters of an element. “UTF-8” indicates that an element is composedof characters whose encoding scheme is “UTF-8”.

In the “value formats or numerated values” column, predetermined formatsof elements having specific data formats are shown. In the “examples ofvalues” column, examples thereof are shown. In the “occurrences” column,the number of characters that an element can occur in a singledisc-metadata file is shown. “0-” indicates that the element can appearfrom zero times to any number of times. “0-1” indicates that the elementcan appear either zero times or once. “1” indicates that the elementmust occur once, and not twice or more. In the “meaning” column,meanings of respective elements are shown. In the “input method”, inputmethods of the elements are shown.

The elements shown in the table 241 described above will be describedmore specifically.

On the row with the “number” of “1”, description of a main title element(mainTitle) is shown. The element type of the main title element isarbitrary character string (nr), and the main title element may be inEnglish or other languages. This element is an element describing a maintitle, i.e., a title for the entire clips recorded on the disc 132. Thatis, the main title element is character information for allowing theuser to readily recognize data recorded on the disc 132, and in orderthat the main title can be displayed in an environment where it is notpossible to display fonts other than English, it is desired thatdescription in English is also given. This element may be present orabsent, and the number of occurrences of this element is arbitrary. Thecontent of the main title element is defined by user's input.

On the row with the “number” of “2”, description of a subtitle element(subtitle) is shown. The element type of the subtitle element isarbitrary character string (nr), and may be the subtitle element may bein English or other languages. This element is intended to be anauxiliary element of the main title element described above, and contentthat supplements the main title is described. That is, the subtitleelement is also character information that allows the user to readilyrecognize data recorded on the disc 132, and in order that the maintitle can be displayed in an environment where it is not possible todisplay fonts other than English, it is desired that description inEnglish is also given. This element may be present or absent, and thenumber of occurrences of this element is arbitrary. The content of thesubtitle element is defined by user's input.

On the row with the “number” of “3”, description of an other titleelement (otherTitle) is shown. The element type of the other titleelement is arbitrary character string (nr), and the other title elementmay be in English or other languages. This element is used when afurther title is to be given in addition to the main title element andthe subtitle element described above. That is, the other title elementis also character information for allowing the user to readily recognizedata recorded on the disc 132, and in order that the main title can bedisplayed in an environment where it is not possible to display fontsother than English, it is desired that description in English is alsogiven. This element may be present or absent, and the number ofoccurrences of this element is arbitrary. The content of the other titleelement is defined by user's input.

On the row with the “number” of “4”, description of a creation date andtime element (CreationDate) is shown. The element type of the creationdate and time element is date information and time information(lib:dateTimeType), and the creation date and time element is composedof date and time information obtained from the timekeeping unit 118.This element indicates a creation date and time of the format of thedisc 132, i.e., the creation date and time of the index file, and whenthe setting is such that the creation date element is written, at thetime of creation of the index file, the date and time information atthat time is automatically written. This element may be present orabsent, and the number of occurrences of this element is arbitrary.

On the row with the “number” of “5”, description of user date and timeelement (userDate) is shown. The element type of the creation date andtime element is date information and time information(lib:dateTimeType), and the creation date and time element is composedof date and time information input by the user. This element is usedwhen the user wishes to record a date and time other than the creationdate and time for the purpose of management. This element may be presentor absent, and the number of occurrences of this element is arbitrary.The content of the user date and time element is defined by user'sinput.

On the row with the “number” of “6”, description of a user defined IDelement (userDefinedID) is shown. The user defined ID element iscomposed of a character string of not more than 63 7 bit ASCIIcharacters, and is composed of a user defined ID that is defined, forexample, when the user has a proprietary management scheme. This elementmay be present or absent, and the maximum number of occurrences of thiselement is one. The content of the user defined ID element is defined byuser's input.

On the row with the “number” of “7”, description of a free descriptionelement (description) is shown. The free description element is composedof a UTF-8 encoded character string that does not exceed 1023 bytes, andis composed of free text characters input by the user. This element maybe present or absent, and the maximum number of occurrences of thiselement is one.

On the row with the “number” of “8”, description of a representativeimage element (typ) is shown. The representative image element iscomposed of a 7-bit ASCII character string not exceeding 12 characters.The representative image element allows, for example, the user tointuitively grasp the content of clips recorded on the disc 132 on thebasis of image information as well as text information such as a title,and a representative frame image of clips recorded on the disc 132 isset. The representative image element is composed of a clip number and aframe number, such as “CXXXX-YYYYYY”. That is, for example, therepresentative image element is “C0001-1”. As described earlier, as thevalue of the representative image element, when a frame image isspecified by the user, the frame image is selected and set, and when noframe image is specified by the user, the beginning frame image (frameimage with a frame number of 1) of the beginning clip recorded on thedisc 132 is set. This element may be present or absent, and the maximumnumber of occurrences of this element is one.

On the row with the “number” of “9”, description of a PROAV ID element(PROAV ID) is shown. The PROAV ID element is composed of a 7-bit ASCCIcharacter string not exceeding 16 characters, and is composed of a copyof the PROAV ID written in the index file. The content of the PROAV IDelement is determined and written by referring to the index file whenthe disc-metadata file is created. This element must be written once.The PROAV ID element must not occur twice or more.

The index file and the disc-metadata file created as described above aremanaged on the disc 132 by a directory structure shown in FIGS. 22 to24.

Data recorded on the disc 132 is managed by a file system such as theUDF. The file system is not limited to UDF, and any file system can beused as long as it is supported by the editing apparatus 1, such as theISO 9660 (International Organization for Standardization 9600). When amagnetic disc such as a hard disc is used instead of the disc 32, FAT(File Allocation Tables), NTFS (New Technology File System), HFS(Hierarchical File System), or UFS (Unix(R) File System), or the likemay be used as the file system. Alternatively, a special-purpose filesystem may be used.

Referring to FIG. 22, in a root directory (ROOT) 251, a PROAV directory252 is provided, having subdirectories where information regardingmaterial data such as image data and audio data, edit lists representingresults of editing of ′these material data, and so forth are contained.

In the PROAV directory 252, a disc-metadata file (DISCMETA.XML) 253including titles and comments for all the material data recorded on thedisc 132, a path of image data corresponding to the representativeimage, which is a frame that serves as a representative of all the imagedata recorded on the disc 132, and so forth, an index file (INDEX.XML)254 including management information or the like for managing all theclips and edit lists recorded on the disc 132, and an index file(INDEX.BUP) 255 are provided. The index file 255 is a copy of the indexfile 254, and reliability is improved by preparing two files.

Furthermore, in the PROAV directory 252, a disc-information file(DISCINFO.XML) 256 and a disc-information file (DISCINFO.BUP) 257including metadata for the entire data recorded on the disc 132, such asplayback history, are provided. The disc-information file 257 is a copyof the disc information file 256, and reliability is improved bypreparing two files.

In the PROAV directory 252, in addition to the files described above, aclip root directory (CLPR) 258 having subdirectories containing clipdata, and an edit-list root directory (EDTR) 259 having subdirectoriesincluding edit-list data are provided.

In the clip root directory 258, data of clips recorded on the disc 132is managed in different directories for the respective clips. Forexample, in the case of FIG. 22, data of three clips are managedseparately in three directories, namely, a clip directory (C0001) 261, aclip directory (C0002) 262, and a clip directory (C0003) 263. That is,pieces of data of the clip recorded first on the disc 132 are managed asfiles under the clip directory 261, pieces of data of a clip recordedsecondly on the disc 132 are managed as files under the clip directory262, and pieces of data of a clip recorded thirdly on the disc 132 aremanaged as files under the clip directory 263.

In the edit-list root directory 259, edit lists recorded on the disc 132are managed in different directories for respective editing processes.For example, in the case of FIG. 22, edit lists are managed separatelyin four directories, namely, an edit-list directory (E0001) 264, anedit-list directory (E0002) 265, an edit-list directory (E0003) 266, andan edit-list directory (E0004) 267. That is, edit lists representingresults of the first editing of clips recorded on the disc 132 aremanaged as files under the edit-list directory 264, edit listsrepresenting results of the second editing are managed as files underthe edit-list directory 265, edit lists representing results of thethird editing are managed as files under the edit-list directory 266,and edit lists representing results of the fourth editing are managed asfiles under the edit-list directory 267.

Under the clip directory 261 provided in the clip root directory 258described above, pieces of data of the clip recorded first on the disc132 are provided and managed as files as shown in FIG. 23.

In the case of FIG. 22, in the clip directory 261, a clip-informationfile (C0001C01.SMI) 271 for managing this clip, an image-data file(C0001V01.MXF) 272 including image data of this clip, eight audio datafiles (C0001A01.MXF to C0001A08.MXF) 273 to 280 including audio data ofrespective channels of this clip, a low-resolution-data file(C0001S01.MXF) 281 including substream data of this clip, aclip-metadata file (C0001M01.XML) 282 including clip metadata, which ismetadata not requiring real-time property, a frame-metadata file(C0001R01.BIM) 283 including frame metadata, which is metadata requiringreal-time property, a picture-pointer file (C0001I01.PPF) describing aframe structure of the image-data file 272 (e.g., information regardinga compression format on a picture-by-picture basis for MPEG or the like,or information representing an offset address from the beginning of thefile), and so forth are provided.

In the case of FIG. 23, image data, low-resolution data, and framemetadata, which require real-time property at the time of playback, areeach managed as a single file so that reading time will not increase.

Audio data also requires real-time property. In order to supportmultiple audio channels such as 7.1 channels, 8 channels are provided,which are managed as different files, respectively. That is, although ithas been described that audio data are managed as eight files, withoutlimitation thereto, the number of files associated with audio data maybe 7 or less or 9 or greater.

Similarly, depending on cases, image data, low-resolution data, andframe metadata may each be managed as two or more files.

Furthermore, referring to FIG. 23, clip metadata not requiring real-timeproperty is managed as different files from frame metadata requiringreal-time property. This is so arranged that unnecessary metadata willnot be read during normal playback of image data or the like.Accordingly, processing time or the load needed for a playback processcan be reduced.

Although the clip metadata file 282 is written in XML for the purpose ofversatility, the frame metadata file 283 is in the BIM (BInary formatfor MPEG-7 data) format, which is obtained by compiling an XML file, sothat processing time or the load needed for a playback process can bereduced.

An example file structure of the clip directory 261 shown in FIG. 23 canbe applied to all the clip directories associated with the respectiveclips recorded on the disc 132. That is, the example file structureshown in FIG. 23 can be applied to other clip directories 262 and 263shown in FIG. 22, so that descriptions thereof will be omitted.

Although files contained in a clip directory associated with a singleclip have been described, the file structure is not limited to theexample described above, and the file structure is arbitrary.

Next, an example file structure under the edit-list root directory 259shown in FIG. 22 will be described. In subdirectories of an edit-listdirectory 265 provided in the edit-list root directory 259 describedabove, data of edit lists representing information regarding results ofthe second editing on pieces of data of the clips recorded on the disc132 are provided and managed as files shown in FIG. 24.

In the case of FIG. 24, in the edit-list directory 265, an edit-listfile (E0002E01.SMI) 291 for managing the result of editing (edit list),and an edit-list clip-metadata file (E0002M01.XML) 292 including clipmetadata associated with the edited material data (parts extracted asedited data among material data of all the clips used for editing) orclip metadata newly generated on the basis of the clip metadata areprovided.

The edit-list clip-metadata file 292 includes information extracted fromclip metadata of clips used for editing on the basis of the editingresults (clip metadata files existing in subdirectories of the clip rootdirectory 258). For example, when editing is performed, metadata ofparts corresponding to the edited material data is extracted from clipmetadata of clips used for editing, and new clip metadata with theedited material data as a single clip is reconstructed using themetadata. Furthermore, new information is added to the new clip metadataas needed, and the result is managed as an edit-list clip-metadata file.The edit-list clip-metadata file is generated on each occasion ofediting.

The edit-list clip-metadata file 292 is written in XML for the purposeof versatility.

The example file structure of the edit-list directory 265 can be appliedto all edit lists (results of editing). That is, the example filestructure shown in FIG. 24 can be applied to other edit-list directories264, 266, and 267 shown in FIG. 22, so that descriptions thereof will beomitted.

Although files contained in an edit-list directory associated with asingle editing operation have been described above, the file structureis not limited to the example described above, and the file structure isarbitrary.

As described above, the disc metafiles and the index file are locatedimmediately under the PROAV directory, and are managed separately fromclips or edit lists.

Next, a disc-metadata-file updating process that is executed when thedisc-metadata file recorded and managed on the disc 132 as describedabove is updated will be described with reference to a flowchart shownin FIG. 25.

When the disc-metadata-file updating process is started, first, in stepS91, the disc-metadata-file reading unit 162 controls the drive 126 toread the disc-metadata file from the disc 132 mounted on the drive 126,and stores the disc-metadata file in the disc-metadata-file holding unit152.

When the disc-metadata file is held by the disc-metadata-file holdingunit 152, in step S92, the representative-image setting unit 194, underthe control of the disc-metadata-file managing unit 182, determineswhether to update the disc representative image. When it is determinedthat the disc representative image is to be updated on the basis of, forexample, a user's instruction, proceeding to step S93, therepresentative-image setting unit 194 determines whether the discrepresentative image is specified. When the disc representative image isspecified by the user in advance and the specification information isheld in the information holding unit 114 or the like, so that it isdetermined that the disc representative image is specified, proceedingto step S94, the representative-image setting unit 194 sets thespecified frame as the representative image of the disc 132(representative image of all the clips recorded on the disc 132), andproceeds to step S96.

On the other hand, when specification information or the like of thedisc representative image does not exist, so that it is determined instep S93 that the disc representative image is not specified, proceedingto step S95, the representative-image setting unit 194 sets thebeginning frame of the beginning clip recorded on the disc 132 as therepresentative image of the disc 132 (representative image of all theclips recorded on the disc 132), and proceeds to step S96.

When it is determined in step S92 that the disc representative image isnot to be updated on the basis of, for example, a user's instruction,the representative-image setting unit 194 skips processing in steps S93to S95 and proceeds to step S96.

In step S96, the representative-image setting unit 194 determineswhether to update other label information included in the disc-metadatafile. More specifically, of the elements described with reference to thetable 241 shown in FIG. 21, the representative-image setting unit 194determines whether to update elements that can be input by the user(e.g., main title element, subtitle element, other title element,user-specified date element, user-defined ID element, free descriptionelement, and so forth) on the basis of, for example, a user'sinstruction.

When it is determined that the label information is to be updated,proceeding to step S97, the representative-image setting unit 194updates elements specified for updating in the label information, andproceeds to step S98. When it is determined in step S96 that the labelinformation is not to be updated, the representative-image setting unit194 skips the processing in step S97 and proceeds to step S98.

When the updating of the elements included in the disc-metadata file isfinished, in step S98, the PROAV-ID comparing unit 193, under thecontrol of the disc-metadata-file recording controller 183, compares thevalue of the PROAV ID element (i.e., the PROAV ID of the disc-metadatafile) with the PROAV ID of the index file. Then, in step S99, thePROAV-ID comparing unit 193 checks whether these two PROAV IDs match onthe basis of the result of comparison in step S98.

When these two PROAV IDs match so that it is determined that theinformation of the disc-metadata file is associated with clips and editlists recorded on the disc 132, the PROAV-ID comparing unit 193 suppliesthe result of checking to the disc-metadata-file recording controller183. Proceeding to step S100, on the basis of the result of checking,the disc-metadata-file recording controller 183 obtains the updateddisc-metadata file from the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152, andrecords the updated disc-metadata file by overwriting the disc-metadatafile on the disc 132 via the drive 126. After recording thedisc-metadata file on the disc 132, the disc-metadata-file recordingcontroller 183 exits the disc-metadata-file updating process.

When the two PROAV IDs do not match so that it is determined in step S99that the information of the disc-metadata file is not associated withclips and edit lists recorded on the disc 132, the PROAV-ID comparingunit 193 supplies the result of checking to the disc-metadata-filerecording controller 183. Proceeding to step S101, on the basis of theresult of checking, the disc-metadata-file recording controller 183executes error processing, and for example, displays an error message ona display or the like via the output unit 122, and exits thedisc-metadata-file updating process.

As described above, when the disc-metadata file is recorded on the disc132, the PROAV-ID comparing unit 193 of the editing apparatus 100compares the value of the PROAV ID of the disc-metadata file and thevalue of the PROAV ID of the index file. Thus, the editing apparatus 100can record the disc-metadata file more accurately on the disc 132.

For example, if a formatting process is executed on the disc 132 duringthe disc-metadata-file updating process, the content of the disc 132 isupdated. In such a case, by comparing PROAV IDs, inconsistency betweenthe content of the disc-metadata file and the content of other clips andedit lists can be prevented.

FIG. 26 shows a specific example of this case. Referring to FIG. 26,first-format data 302 is recorded on a disc 301 in an initial state (thedisc 301 on the left side as viewed in the figure). When a disc-metadatafile 303 is updated from the disc 301 in this state and an updateddisc-metadata file is again recorded on the disc 301 in the same stateafter the updating process, it is determined by comparison of PROAV IDsthat the updated disc-metadata file is associated with the first-formatdata 302. Thus, the updated disc-metadata file 303 can be recorded onthe disc 301.

On the other hand, when the disc-metadata file 303 is read from the disc301 in the initial state (the disc 301 on the left side as viewed in thefigure) and a formatting process is executed on the disc 301 while anupdating process is being executed so that second-format data 304 isrecorded on the disc 301 (the disc 301 on the right side as viewed inthe figure), if the disc-metadata file 303 is recorded again on the samedisc 301 after the updating process, PROAV IDs are compared and it isdetermined that the updated disc-metadata file 303 is not associatedwith the second-format data 304. Thus, it is not possible to record thedisc-metadata file 303 on the disc 301 (the disc 301 on the right sideas viewed in the figure).

As described above, the PROAV ID allows identification on the basis ofeach format, not on the basis of each disc 132 as hardware. Thus, theediting apparatus 100 can record the disc-metadata file more accuratelyon the disc 132. Furthermore, by recording the PROAV ID on the disc 132so that it is included in the index file and the disc-metadata file, thePROAV ID can be used in other apparatuses.

As described earlier, the PROAV ID is used for specifying a format orconfirming disc metadata, and the purpose or method of use thereofbasically differs from that of a UMID, which is used for specifying aclip or an edit list. The method of using an UMID will be describedbelow.

A UMID, which is used for specifying a clip or an edit list, is writtenin an index file for managing a clip or an edit list, a clip-informationfile for each clip, or an edit-list file for each edit list, as shown inFIGS. 16 to 19. First, a UMID that is written in a clip-information filewill be described.

A clip-information file is created when a clip is recorded on the disc132. A clip adding process that is executed when a clip is added to thedisc 132 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG.27. Furthermore, description will be given as needed with reference toFIGS. 28 and 29.

When addition of a new clip to the disc 132 is instructed, for example,by the user, in step S121, the recording controller 116 of the editingapparatus 100 creates a new clip directory under the clip root directoryof the disc 132. At that time, the clip directory name is chosen so thatit is different from existing clip directory names.

Then, in step S122, the UMID creating unit 174 of the recordingcontroller 116 creates a UMID for each clip and each piece of materialdata included in the clip. The UMID creating unit 174 supplies the UMIDcreated to the information holding unit 114 so that it is held therein.When a UMID is assigned in advance to a clip to be added, the UMIDcreating unit 174 obtains the UMID and supplies the UMID to theinformation holding unit 114 so that it is held therein.

When the processing in step S122 is finished, proceeding to step S123,the recording controller 116 creates a clip-information file under theclip directory created by the processing in step S121.

FIGS. 28 and 29 are diagrams showing specific examples of description ofa clip-information file written in XML. In FIGS. 28 and 29, numerals atthe beginnings of the lines are attached for convenience of description,and are not parts of the XML description.

As described earlier, the clip-information file is a file for managinginformation regarding other files existing in the same clip directory asthe clip information file, and a method of playing back these files isdescribed.

As shown in FIGS. 28 and 29, the XML description of a clip informationfile is broadly composed of information regarding the clip informationfile, a header section enclosed by header tags (<head></head>), and abody section enclosed by body tags (<body></body>).

On the 1st to 3rd rows in FIG. 28, information regarding the clipinformation file is written. On the 1st row, it is indicated that thedescription is based on the XML version “1.0” and that the characterencoding scheme is “UTF-8”. On the 2nd row, the namespace identifierused is written.

‘umid=“0D12130000000000001044444484EEEE00E0188E130B”’ on the 3rd row inFIG. 28 indicates that the value of the UMID assigned to the clipinformation file is “0D12130000000000001044444484EEEE00E0188E130B”. Inthis example, of the 32-byte basic UMID, 22 bytes are shown, with 10bytes in the 12-byte universal label omitted. Each digit is representedby a hexadecimal number, so that the 22-byte UMID is represented by 44characters. Obviously, the UMID used may be a 64-byte extended UMID.

In the case of FIGS. 28 and 29, the header section is described from the4th row in FIG. 28 to the 11th row in FIG. 28, and the body section isdescribed from the 12th row in FIG. 28 to the 23rd row in FIG. 29.

In the header section, information regarding clip metadata filesexisting in the same clip directory is described. In the body section,information regarding files other than the clip metadata files, existingin the same clip directory, is described together with a playbackmethod.

For example, on the 7th to 9th rows in FIG. 28, information regardingclip metadata files is described.

Furthermore, on the 17th to 19th rows in FIG. 28, information of animage data file is described. On the 20th to 22nd rows in FIG. 28,information of an audio data file for the channel 1 is described. On the23rd to 25th rows in FIG. 28, information of an audio data file for thechannel 2 is described. On the 26th to 28th rows in FIG. 28, informationof an audio data file for the channel 3 is described. On the 29th row inFIG. 28 to the 1st row in FIG. 29, information of an audio data file forthe channel 4 is described. On the 2nd to 4th rows in FIG. 29,information of an audio data file for the channel 5 is described. On the5th to 7th rows in FIG. 29, information of an audio data file for thechannel 6 is described. On the 8th to 10th rows in FIG. 29, informationof an audio data file for the channel 7 is described. On the 11th to13th rows in FIG. 29, information of an audio data file for the channel8 is described.

On the 16th to 18th rows in FIG. 29, information of a low-resolutiondata file constituting a substream is described. On the 21st row in FIG.29, information of a frame metadata file is described.

The files of these image data, audio data, and low-resolution data areeach identified using a UMID. More specifically,“umid:060A2B3401010105010D12130000000123456789ABCDEF01234567 89ABCDEF”is written on the 18th row in FIG. 28, and image data is specified usingthe UMID. On the 21st row,“umid:060A2B340101010501010D1213000000123456789ABCDEF0123456 789ABCDEF0”is written, and audio data for the channel 1 is specified using theUMID. As for audio data associated with the channel 2, on the 24th row,“umid:060A2B340101010501010D121300000023456789ABCDEF01234567 89ABCDEF01”is written, and audio data for the channel 2 is specified using theUMID. Furthermore, as for audio data associated with the channel 2, onthe 27th row,“umid:060A2B340101010501010D12130000003456789ABCDEF012345678 9ABCDEF012”is written, and audio data for the channel 3 is specified using theUMID.

As for audio data associated with the channel 4, on the 30th row in FIG.28, “umid:060A2B340101010501010D1213000000456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF0123” is written, and audio data for the channel 4 is specifiedusing the UMID. As for audio data associated with the channel 5, on the3rd row in FIG. 29,“umid:060A2B340101010501010D121300000056789ABCDEF0123456789A BCDEF01234”is written, and audio data for the channel 5 is specified using theUMID. As for audio data associated with the channel 6, on the 6th row inFIG. 29, “umid:060A2B340101010501010D12130000006789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345” is written, and audio data for the channel 6 is specifiedusing the UMID.

As for audio data associated with the channel 7, on the 9th row in FIG.29, “umid:060A2B340101010501010D1213000000789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF0123456” is written, and audio data for the channel 7 is specifiedusing the UMID. As for audio data associated with the channel 8, on the12th row, “umid:060A2B340101010501010D121300000089ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF01234567” is written, and audio data for the channel 8 is specifiedusing the UMID.

As for low-resolution data constituting a substream, on the 17th row,“umid:060A2B340101010501010D12130000009ABCDEF0123456789ABCDE F012345678”is written, and low-resolution data is specified using the UMID.

As described above, in the XML description of the clip-information file,information regarding other files existing in the same clip directory isdescribed. The clip-information file can be accessed by specifying afile of image data, audio data, or the like using a 32-byte(64-character) basic UMID.

As described with reference to FIGS. 16 to 19, UMIDs described inthe-clip information file are also described in the index file. Thus,for example, when the editing apparatus 100 (user) specifies this clipusing the UMID to play back the clip, the editing apparatus 100 mayrefer to the clip table in the index file, read and refer to aclip-information file associated with the UMID, and read and play backpieces of material data on the basis of description of theclip-information file. Alternatively, the editing apparatus 100 may readand play back pieces of material data on the basis of description ofspecified clip elements in the clip table of the index file.

By describing UMIDs in the clip-information file, when recording thisclip on a device external to the disc 132, the editing apparatus 100 canuse the UMID assigned to the clip (or material data) only by recordingthis clip (files under the clip directory).

Although examples of UMIDs representing pieces of data are written inFIGS. 28 and 29 as described above, these only represent descriptionpositions or the like of UMIDs, and these are virtual UMIDs withmeaningless values. Actually, valid UMIDs created according to a methoddefined by the SMPTE are written in place of the virtual UMIDs describedabove.

Referring back to FIG. 27, in step S124, the recording controller 116creates a file for each piece of material data constituting the clip,under the clip directory created by the processing in step S121. Forexample, when the clip to be added is composed of image data, audiodata, and clip metadata, the recording controller 116 records the imagedata, audio data, and clip metadata as mutually different files.

After finishing the processing in step S124, the recording controller116 proceeds to step S125. In step S125, the index-file managing unit172 of the recording controller 116 creates clip information(hereinafter referred to as a clip element) associated with the addedclip, which is to be added to the clip table of the index file, usingthe UMID of the clip held in the information holding unit 114.

After creating the clip element, proceeding to step S126, the index-filemanaging unit 172 adds the clip element associated with the added clipto the clip table of the index file held in the index-file holding unit151.

Then, in step S127, the index-file recording controller 173 records theupdated index file by overwriting the existing index file on the disc132 (updates the index file). After updating the index file on the disc132, the index-file recording controller 173 exits the clip addingprocess.

As described above, UMIDs assigned to clip-information files and filesof pieces of material data are created, for example, when clips areadded, and are recorded in the clip-information files and the indexfile. As described earlier, these UMIDs are used when reading andplaying back or searching for clip-information files or pieces ofmaterial data associated with the UMIDs.

Next, UMIDs written in an edit-list file will be described.

An edit-list file is created when an edit list is recorded on the disc132. An edit-list adding process that is executed when an edit list isadded to the disc 132 will be described with reference to a flowchartshown in FIG. 30. Furthermore, description will be given as needed withreference to FIG. 31.

For example, when non-destructive editing is performed so that a cliprecorded on the disc 132 is edited without updating original materialdata while creating an edit list representing editing information, andthen addition of a new edit list to the disc 32 is instructed, forexample, by the user, in step S141, the recording controller 116 of theediting apparatus 100 creates a new edit-list directory under the rootdirectory of the disc 132. At that time, the name of the edit-listdirectory is chosen so that it differs from the names of existingedit-list directories.

Then, in step S142, the UMID creating unit 174 of the recordingcontroller 116 creates a UMID for the edit-list file. The UMID creatingunit 174 supplies the UMID created to the information holding unit 114so that it is held therein. When a UMID is assigned in advance to theedit list (edit-list file) to be added, the UMID creating unit 174obtains the UMID and supplies the UMID to the information holding unit114 so that it is held therein.

After the processing in step S142 is finished, proceeding to step S143,the recording controller 116 creates an edit-list file under theedit-list directory created by the processing in step S141.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing a specific example of description of theedit-list file in XML. In FIG. 31, numerals at the beginnings of thelines are attached for convenience of description, and are not parts ofthe XML description.

The edit-list file includes editing information regardingnon-destructive editing of clips, and a playback method for the resultsof editing is also described.

As shown in FIG. 31, the XML description of the edit-list file iscomposed broadly of information regarding the edit list, a headersection enclosed by header tags (<head></head>), and a body sectionenclosed by body tags (<body></body>).

On the 1st to 3rd rows in FIG. 31, information regarding the edit-listfile is described. On the 1st row, it is indicated that the descriptionis based on the XML version “1.0”, and that the character encodingscheme is “UTF-8”. On the 2nd row, the namespace identifier used iswritten. ‘umid=“0D12130000000000001044444484EEEE00E0188E130B”’, writtenon the 3rd row in FIG. 31, indicates that the value of the UMID assignedto the edit-list file is “0D12130000000000001044444484EEEE00E0188E130B”.In this example, of the 32-byte basic UMID, 22 bytes are shown, with 10bytes in the 12-byte universal label omitted. Each of the digits isrepresented by a hexadecimal number, so that the 22-byte UMID isrepresented by 44 characters. The UMID used may be a 64-byte extendedUMID.

In the case of FIG. 31, the header section is written from the 4th to11th rows, and the body section is written from the 12th to 25th rows.

In the header section, information that is not relevant to the temporalbehavior of the description of editing is included, and for example,information regarding metadata is described. A metadata element writtenbetween a start tag “<metadata type=“Meta”> on the 5th row and an endtag </metadata> on the 10th row is used as a root element of metainformation. ‘type=“Meta”’ written on the 5th row is a type attributespecifying a media type of the content of metadata. The type attributecan be specified by an arbitrary character string. ‘<NRMetaxmlns=“urn:schemas:professionalDisc:nrt”>’ written on the 7th row is adescription specifying a namespace identifier for identifying elementsand attributes. A ref element ‘<ref src=“E0002M01.XML”/>’ written on the8th row indicates that the file name of the edit-list metadata file thatis referred to is “E0002M01.XML”.

In the body section, information that is relevant to the temporalbehavior of the description of editing is described. In the case of FIG.31, a par element written between a start tag “<par>” on the 13th rowand an end tag “</par>” on the 24th row is a time container that definesa simple time group for simultaneous playback of a plurality ofelements. In the case of FIG. 31, it is indicated that a first clip(Clip 1) and a second clip (Clip 2) are to be played backsimultaneously. In the case of FIG. 31, however, as will be describedlater, playback start times of the two clips mutually differ, andactually the two clips are played back continuously.

Referring to FIG. 31, in the ref element on the 15th to 18th rows, afile that is referred to, a condition for playing back the file that isreferred to, and so forth are described.‘src=“urn:smpte:umid:060A2B340101010501010D1213000000FEDCBA9876543210FEDCBA9876543210”’ written on the 16th row indicates that thevalue of the UMID assigned to the file that is referred to is“060A2B340101010501010D1213000000FEDCBA9876543210FEDCBA98765 43210”.

‘type=“edlDoc”’ written on the 17th row indicates that the typeattribute of the file that is referred to is “edlDoc”.‘begin=“smpte-30=00:00:00:00”’ also written on the 17th row indicates atime at which the first clip is started, i.e., the position of the startof the material on the FTC (File Time Code) of the edit list, and theunit is the number of frames. “smpte-30” is a description indicatingthat the time code used is a 30-frames-per-second SMPTE time codedefined by the SMPTE. ‘clipBegin=“smpte-30=00:00:00:00”’ on the 17th rowindicates a position where the playback of the first clip is to bestarted, i.e., the start point of cutout of the material on the FTC ofthe first clip, and the unit is the number of frames. Similarly,‘clipEnd=“smpte-30:00:10:00:00:”’ written on the 17th and 18th rows inFIG. 31 indicates a position where the playback of the first clip is tobe stopped, i.e., the end point of cutout of the material on the FTC ofthe first clip.

As described above, the playback of the first clip is started at thetime “00:00:00:00” from the position of the frame number “00:00:00:00”,and the playback is continued up to the position of the frame number“00:10:00:00”.

On the 21st to 23rd rows, the second clip is described similarly to thecase of the first clip. In the case of FIG. 31, the playback of thesecond clip is started at the time “00:10:00:00” from the position ofthe frame number “00:02:00:00”, and the playback is continued up to theposition of the frame number “00:03:30:00”.

The par element specifies that the first clip and the second clip beplayed back simultaneously as described above. Thus, as a result, at thetime “00:00:00:00”, the first clip is played back from the position ofthe frame number “00:00:00:00” to the frame number “00:10:00:00”. Then,when the time “00:10:00:00” comes, the second clip is played back fromthe position of the frame number “00:02:00:00” to the position of theframe number “00:03:30:00”. As described above, the edit list shown inFIG. 31 indicates that editing is performed so that the first clip andthe second clip will be played back continuously.

As described above, in the XML description of the edit-list file,editing information regarding non-destructive editing of clips isdescribed. The edit-list file can be accessed by specifying a file ofimage data, audio data, or the like using a 32-byte (64-character) basicUMID.

Although examples of UMIDs representing pieces of data are written, forexample, on the 3rd, 16th, and 21st rows, these only representdescription positions or the like of the UMIDs, and these are virtualUMIDs with meaningless values. Actually, valid UMIDs created on thebasis of a method defined by the SMPTE are written in place of thevirtual UMIDs described above.

For example, when the editing apparatus 100 (user) specifies and playsback the edit list using the UMID, the editing apparatus 100 refers tothe edit-list table of the index file, reads and refers to an edit-listfile associated with the UMID, refers to clip-information files ofrespective clips on the basis of the description of the edit-list file,and reads and plays back pieces of material data according to theclip-information files.

By describing UMIDs in the edit-list file, when recording the edit liston a device external to the disc 132, the editing apparatus 100 can usethe UMID assigned to the edit-list file simply by recording theedit-list file.

Referring back to FIG. 30, in step S144, the recording controller 116creates files constituting the edit list other than the edit-list file,such as an edit-list clip-metadata file, under the edit-list directorycreated by the processing in step S141.

After finishing the processing in step S144, the recording controller116 proceeds to step S145. In step S145, the index-file managing unit172 of the recording controller 116 creates information of an edit list(edit-list element) that is to be added to the edit-list table of theindex file held in the index-file holding Unit 151, using the UMID ofthe edit list held in the information holding unit 114. Then, proceedingto step S146, the index-file managing unit 172 of the recordingcontroller 116 adds the edit list element associated with the added editlist to the edit-list table of the index file held in the index-fileholding unit 151. After adding the edit-list element, the index-filemanaging unit 172 proceeds to step S147.

In step S147, the index-file recording controller 173 records theupdated index file held in the index-file holding unit 151 byoverwriting the existing index file on the disc 132 (updates the indexfile). After updating the index file on the disc 132, the index-filerecording controller 173 exits the edit-list adding process.

As described above, the UMID assigned to the edit-list file is created,for example, when an edit list is added, and is recorded in theedit-list file and the index file. As described earlier, the UMID isused when reading and playing back or searching for an edit-list fileassociated with the UMID.

As described above, the UMID is used for reading (playing back) a clipor an edit list associated with the UMID. Furthermore, for the purposeof unitary management of clips and edit lists recorded in the disc 132,UMIDs are managed in the index file, and are also described and managedin clip-information files and edit-list files so that the UMIDs can beused even when clips and edit lists are recorded on a device external tothe disc 132.

In contrast, the PROAV ID is an ID for identifying the disc 132 (format)and is described in the index file, and it is not possible to read (playback) a clip or an edit list using the PROAV ID alone. Furthermore, thePROAV ID is described in a disc-metadata file including labelinformation of data recorded on the disc 132, and is also used forchecking whether a disc-metadata file is associated with data recordedon the disc 132 on which the disc-metadata file is to be recorded, forexample, after updating the disc-metadata file.

Next, a process of searching for a clip using the PROAV ID describedabove will be described. The description herein will be given in thecontext of a playback apparatus that is different from the editingapparatus 100 and that can use the disc 132 created as described above.

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing an example construction of a playbackapparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 32, partscorresponding to those of the editing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 6 aredesignated by the same numerals, and descriptions thereof will beomitted as appropriate.

A playback apparatus 350 can use the disc 132 (can read and play backclips and edit list recorded on the disc 132) created as described above(having recorded clips and edit lists thereon), for example, by theediting apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 6.

The input/output interface 120 of the playback apparatus 350 isconnected to three drives (drives 126-1 to 126-3) similar to the drive126 of the editing apparatus 100. Each of the drives 126-1 to 126-3allows one disc 132 described above to be mounted thereon and dismountedtherefrom, and under the control of a playback controller 355 and soforth described later, it reads a clip, an edit list, or the likerecorded on the disc 132 mounted thereon and supplies it to theinformation holding unit 114, the playback controller 355, or the like.In FIG. 32, the drives 126-1 to 126-3 have respectively mounted thereondiscs 132-1 to 132-3, one by one, similar to the disc 132.

In the following description, when it is not necessary to describe thediscs 132-1 to 132-3 separately, the discs will be referred to as discs132. Similarly, when it is not necessary to describe the drives 126-1 to126-3 separately, the drives will be referred to as drives 126.

The bus 117 of the playback apparatus 350 is connected to the playbackcontroller 355 for controlling, for example, a process of playing back aclip or an edit list, as well as the CPU 111 to the information holdingunit 114. The playback controller 355 includes the index-file readingunit 161, the disc-metadata-file reading unit 162, and a clip searchingunit 371. The index-file reading unit 161 and the disc-metadata-filereading unit 162 respectively read the index file and the disc-metadatafile from the disc 132 when the disc 132 (disc 132-1 to disc 132-3) isconnected to one of the drives 126-1 to 126-3.

The clip searching unit 371 searches for a clip or an edit listspecified by the user from the discs 132-1 to 132-3 respectively mountedon the drives 126-1 to 126-3.

Next, an operation of the playback apparatus 350 will be described. Whenone of the discs 132-1 to 132-3 is mounted on one of the drives 126-1 to126-3, the index-file reading unit 161 of the playback controller 355reads the index file from the disc, and supplies the index file to theindex-file holding unit 151 (FIG. 7) of the information holding unit 114so that it is held therein. Furthermore, the disc-metadata-file readingunit 162 of the playback controller 355 reads the disc-metadata filefrom the disc, and supplies the disc-metadata file to thedisc-metadata-file holding unit 152 (FIG. 7) of the information holdingunit 114 so that it is held therein. The disc-metadata file is suppliedto the output unit 122 as needed, and is displayed on a display or thelike.

For example, the user specifies a clip (UMID) via the input unit 121 toinstruct playback thereof, for example, by referring to labelinformation included in the disc metadata displayed on the display. Theclip playback instruction input as described above is supplied to theplayback controller 355. Upon receiving the clip playback instruction,the playback controller 355, in the clip searching unit 371 thereof,searches for the specified clip (UMID) from the index file of one of thediscs 132-1 to 132-3, held in the index-file holding unit 151 of theinformation holding unit 114, thereby identifying a format (PROAV ID)including the specified clip (UMID). Then, the clip searching unit 371searches for the clip from the disc 132 having recorded the identifiedformat (PROAV ID) thereon among the discs 132-1 to 132-3. When the clipexists, the playback controller 355 reads the specified clip and playsback the clip on the basis of the result of searching.

By using the PROAV ID for identifying a format as well as the UMID forglobally unique identification of the clip in the process of searchingfor the clip as described above, the playback apparatus 350 canalleviate the load of the clip searching process and readily search forthe clip.

Next, a disc loading process that is executed when the disc 132 ismounted on the drive 126 of the playback controller 355 described abovewill be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. 33.

When the disc 132 (one of the discs 132-1 to 132-3) is mounted on thedrive 126 (one of the drives 126-1 to 126-3), first, in step S161, theindex-file reading unit 161 of the playback controller 355 reads theindex file from the disc 132 mounted on the drive 126, and supplies theindex file to the index-file holding unit 151 of the information holdingunit 114 so that it is held therein. After the index file is held in theindex-file holding unit 151, the index-file reading unit 161 proceeds tostep S162.

In step S162, similarly to the case of the index file, thedisc-metadata-file reading unit 162 reads the disc-metadata file fromthe disc 132 mounted on the drive 126, and supplies the disc-metadatafile to the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152 of the informationholding unit 114 so that it is held therein. After the disc-metadatafile is held in the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152, thedisc-metadata-file reading unit 162 exits the disc loading process.

As described above, in the index-file holding unit 151 of theinformation holding unit 114, the index file of the disc 132 mounted onone of the drives 126-1 to 126-3 is held. The index-file holding unit151 can hold a plurality of index files, and the number of index filesis arbitrary. However, it is desired that a number of index files atleast greater than the number of drives 126 can be held. The index-fileholding unit 151 herein can simultaneously hold three or more indexfiles.

Furthermore, the disc-metadata-file holding unit 152 can supply thedisc-metadata file held therein to the output unit 122 or the like asneeded and display the disc-metadata file on the display. Thedisc-metadata file may be read at an arbitrary timing, and theprocessing in step S162 shown in FIG. 33 may be omitted so that thedisc-metadata file is not read when the disc 132 is loaded. In thatcase, for example, the disc-metadata file may be read from the disc 132according to a user's instruction so that the disc-metadata file issupplied to the output unit 122 and displayed on the display or thelike.

In the playback apparatus 350 in which the discs 132-1 to 132-3 aremounted respectively on the drives 126-1 to 126-3, for example, when theuser specifies a clip using the UMID or the like and instructs playbackof the clip, the instruction is supplied to the playback controller 355.Upon receiving the clip playback instruction, the components of theplayback controller 355 execute a clip searching process to search forthe specified clip and to read the clip from the disc 132.

The clip searching process will be described with reference to aflowchart shown in FIG. 34.

When the clip searching process is started, in step S181, the clipsearching unit 371 of the playback controller 355 searches for thespecified UMID from a plurality of index files (hereinafter referred toas a index-file set) held in the index-file holding unit 151, therebyidentifying an index file in which the specified UMID is written (formatin which the specified clip exists), i.e., the PROAV ID associated withthe specified UMID.

After identifying the PROAV ID, proceeding to step S182, the clipsearching unit 371 accesses the disc 132 having recorded thereon theformat associated with the PROAV ID to search for the clip associatedwith the specified UMID. That is, in step S182, the clip searching unit371 compares the PROAV ID identified with the PROAV ID of the index filerecorded on each of the discs 132-1 to 132-3 to search for the disc 132for which these two values match. Then, when the values of the two PROAVIDs (the PROAV ID identified by the processing in step S181 and thePROAV ID of the index file recorded on the disc 132) match, the clipsearching unit 371 accesses the disc 132 to search for a clip associatedwith the specified UMID within the disc 132. When the searching isfinished, the clip searching unit 371 proceeds to step S183.

In step S183, the clip searching unit 371 checks whether a clipassociated with the specified UMID exists on the disc 132 accessed. Whenit is determined that a clip associated with the specified UMID exists,the clip searching unit 371 supplies the results of checking to theplayback controller 355, and proceeds to step S184. In step S184, theclip searching unit 371 reads the clip associated with the UMID on thebasis of the result of checking obtained, and exits the clip searchingprocess.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S183 that no clipassociated with the specified UMID exists, for example, because the cliphas been removed after the index file is read from the disc 132, theclip searching unit 371 proceeds to step S185, executes errorprocessing, and exits the clip searching process.

Compared with the process described above, when a clip is directlysearched for on the basis of the UMID (when a clip is searched for usingonly the UMID), the clip searching unit 371 has to access all the discs132 mounted on the drives 126-1 to 126-3 to search for a clip associatedwith the specified UMID until the target clip is found.

In contrast, by executing the clip searching process using the PROAV IDas described above, the disc 132 on which the target clip exists isreadily identified, and it suffices to search for a clip associated withthe specified UMID only within the disc 132. Thus, the playbackapparatus 350 can reduce the load of the process compared with the casewhere a clip is directly searched for on the basis of the UMID.Accordingly, the playback apparatus 350 can more readily identifyinformation recorded on a recording medium.

Although it has been described that the playback apparatus 350 shown inFIG. 32 includes the three drives 126-1 to 126-3, without limitationthereto, the number of drives is arbitrary, and obviously the number maybe two or less, or four or greater.

Also when the playback apparatus 350 searches for an edit list, aprocess similar to the case of searching for a clip, described withreference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 34, is executed, so thatdescription thereof will be omitted.

Furthermore, although it has been described that the playback apparatus350 includes a plurality of drives 126 and plays back clips recorded ona plurality of discs 132, without limitation thereto, for example, asshown in FIG. 35, the playback apparatus 350 may include a hard dischaving recorded a plurality of pieces of disc-image data thereon andplay back clips included in the plurality of pieces of disc-image data.

FIG. 35 is a block diagram showing another example construction of aplayback apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 35, inFIG. 34, parts corresponding to those of the playback apparatus 350shown in FIG. 32 are designated by the same numerals, and descriptionsthereof will be omitted as appropriate.

A playback apparatus 400 shown in FIG. 35 is constructed basically thesame as the playback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32, but differs fromthe playback apparatus 350 in that instead of the drives 126-1 to 126-3of the playback apparatus 350, a hard disc 411 storing disc-image data421 to 423 equivalent to data recorded on the discs 132 is connected tothe input/output interface 120.

The hard disc 411 has recorded thereon disc-image data 421 to 423equivalent to data stored on the discs 132, and it operates as a virtualdrive 126 by executing interface processing for the disc-image data 421to 423. That is, the hard disc 411 operates similarly to the drives126-1 to 126-3 shown in FIG. 32, and executes similar processing. Thedisc-image data 421 to 423 respectively correspond to data individuallystored on the discs 132-1 to 132-3 shown in FIG. 32. That is, theplayback apparatus 400 including the hard disc 411 storing thedisc-image data 421 to 423, which is virtually the discs 132-1 to 132-3shown in FIG. 32, operates and executes processing similarly to theplayback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32.

Also when the playback apparatus 400 described above searches for a clipor an edit list, a process similar to the case where the playbackapparatus 350 searches for a clip, described with reference to aflowchart shown in FIG. 34, is executed. That is, by executing a clipsearching process using the PROAV ID, the disc-image data 421 to 423 inwhich the target clip exists is readily identified, and it suffices tosearch for a clip associated with the specified UMID only within thedisc-image data. Thus, the playback apparatus 400 can reduce the load ofthe process compared with the case where a clip is directly searched foron the basis of the UMID. Accordingly, the playback apparatus 400 canmore readily identify information recorded on a recording medium.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 36, the playback apparatus may include onedrive and also include an automatic loading unit for loading on thedrive a disc selected from a plurality of discs. In FIG. 36, partscorresponding to those of the playback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32are designated by the same numerals, and descriptions thereof will beomitted as appropriate.

A playback apparatus 450 shown in FIG. 36 is constructed basically thesame as the playback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32, but it differs fromthe playback apparatus 350 in that instead of the drives 126-1 to 126-3of the playback apparatus 350, a single drive 126, and an automaticloading unit 471 for selecting a single disc 132 from three discs 132-1to 132-3 and automatically loading the disc 132 on the drive 126 areprovided, and a playback controller 461 including anautomatic-loading-unit controller 462 is connected to the bus 117.

Similarly to the playback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32, when a disc(PROAV ID) having recorded a target clip thereon is identified by asearching process executed by the clip searching unit 371, the clipsearching unit 371 of the playback controller 461 supplies the PROAV IDto the automatic-loading-unit controller 462. The automatic-loading-unitcontroller 462 manages PROAV IDs written in respective index files ofthe three discs 132-1 to 132-3 that are mounted so that they can beloaded on the automatic loading unit 471. The automatic-loading-unitcontroller 462 controls the automatic loading unit 471 on the basis ofthe management information so that the disc 132 associated with theidentified PROAV ID is mounted on the drive 126. The clip searching unit371 searches for a clip associated with the specified UMID in the disc132 loaded on the drive 126.

Next, a clip searching process executed by the playback apparatus 450will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. 37.

When the clip searching process is started, in step S201, the clipsearching unit 371 of the playback controller 461 searches for thespecified UMID from a plurality of index files (hereinafter referred toas an index-file set) held in the index-file holding unit 151, therebyidentifying an index file in which the specified UMID (format in whichthe specified clip exists) i.e., the PROAV ID associated with thespecified UMID.

The clip searching unit 371 supplies information of the identified PROAVID to the automatic-loading-unit controller 462, and proceeds to stepS202. In step S202, the automatic-loading-unit controller 462 identifiesthe disc 132 having recorded thereon the format associated with thePROAV ID obtained on the basis of the management information formanaging the discs 132 provided in the automatic loading unit 471, andcontrols the automatic loading unit 471 to load the disc on the drive126. That is, in step S202, the automatic-loading-unit controller 462searches for a PROAV ID matching the PROAV ID obtained from themanagement information for managing information regarding the PROAV ID,provided in the automatic loading unit 471, and identifies the disc 132associated with the PROAV ID. Then, the automatic-loading-unitcontroller 462 controls the automatic loading unit 471 to load theidentified disc 132 on the drive 126. When the disc is loaded, theautomatic-loading-unit controller 462 proceeds to step S203.

In step S203, the clip searching unit 371 accesses the disc 123 loadedon the drive 126, and searches for a clip associated with the specifiedUMID within the disc 123.

When the searching is finished, in step S204, the clip searching unit371 checks whether a clip associated with the specified UMID exists onthe disc 132 accessed. When it is determined that a clip associated withthe specified UMID exists, the clip searching unit 371 supplies theresult of checking to the playback controller 355, and proceeds to stepS205. In step S205, the playback controller 355 reads the clipassociated with the UMID on the basis of the result of checkingobtained, and exits the clip searching process.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S204 that no clipassociated with the specified UMID exists, for example, because the cliphas been removed after the index file is read from the disc 132, theclip searching unit 371 proceeds to step S206, executes errorprocessing, and exits the clip searching process.

By executing the clip searching process using the PROAV ID as describedabove, the disc 132 on which the target clip exists is readilyidentified, and it suffices to load the disc 132 on the drive 126 and tosearch for a clip associated with the specified UMID only within thedisc 132. Thus, the playback apparatus 450 can reduce the load of theprocess compared with the case where a clip is directly searched for onthe basis of the UMID. Accordingly, the playback apparatus 450 can morereadily identify information recorded on a recording medium.

Although it has been described that the automatic loading unit 471 ofthe playback apparatus 450 shown in FIG. 36 selects one of the threediscs 132-1 to 132-3 and loads the disc on the drive 126, withoutlimitation thereto, the number of discs that can be loaded on the drive126 by the automatic loading unit 471 is arbitrary, and obviously thenumber may be two or less or four or more.

Also when the playback apparatus 450 searches for an edit list, aprocess similar to the case of searching for a clip, described withreference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 37, is executed, so thatdescription thereof will be omitted.

Without limitation to what has been described above, for example, asshown in FIG. 38, the playback apparatus may include a single drive,manages a plurality of discs contained in a disc shelf providedseparately from the playback apparatus, and play back a clip or an editlist recorded on a disc selected from the plurality of discs by the userand mounted on the drive. In FIG. 38, parts corresponding to those ofthe playback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32 are designated by the samenumerals, and descriptions thereof will be omitted as appropriate.

A playback apparatus 500 shown in FIG. 38 is constructed basically thesame as the playback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32, but it differs fromthe playback apparatus 350 in that a single drive 126 is providedinstead of the drives 126-1 to 126-3 of the playback apparatus 350.Furthermore, a disc shelf 531 is provided separately from the playbackapparatus 500, and three discs 132-1 to 132-3 are contained in the discshelf 531. The playback apparatus 500, in the information holding unit114 thereof, holds and manages information of clips and edit listsrecorded on the discs 132-1 to 132-3 contained in the disc shelf 531.

Similarly to the playback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32, when a disc(PROAV ID) on which a target clip is recorded is identified by asearching process executed by the clip searching unit 371, the clipsearching unit 371 of the playback controller 461 supplies the PROAV IDand a search result including the specified UMID to the output unit 122,and outputs the search result, for example, by displaying it on thedisplay. On the basis of the search result displayed on otherwiseprovided, the user of the playback apparatus 500 selects one of thediscs 132-1 to 132-3 contained in the disc shelf 531 and mounts the discon the drive 126. When the disc 132 is mounted on the drive 126, theplayback controller 355 of the playback apparatus 500 executes a normalclip playback process to read and play back the target clip from thedisc 132.

Next, a clip searching process executed by the playback apparatus 500will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. 39.

When the clip searching process is started, in step S221, the clipsearching unit 371 of the playback controller 355 searches for thespecified UMID from a plurality of index files (hereinafter referred toas an index-file set) held in the index-file holding unit 151, therebyidentifying an index file in which the specified UMID is written (formatin which the specified clip exists), i.e., a PROAV ID associated withthe specified UMID.

After identifying the PROAV ID, proceeding to step S222, the clipsearching unit 371 supplies the PROAV ID identified and a search resultincluding the specified UMID to the output unit 122. Upon obtaining thesearch result, the output unit 122 outputs the search result, forexample, by displaying it on the display as text information. Afteroutputting the search result, the output unit 122 exits the clipsearching process.

By referring to the search result output as described above, the user ofthe playback apparatus 500 can select a disc 132 having recorded thetarget clip thereon from the discs 132-1 to 132-3 contained in the discshelf 531, and mount the disc 132 on the drive 126.

By executing the clip searching process using the PROAV ID as describedabove, the disc 132 on which the target clip exists can be readilyidentified. Thus, the playback apparatus 500 can reduce the load of theprocess compared with the case where a clip is directly searched for onthe basis of the UMID. Accordingly, the playback apparatus 500 can morereadily identify information recorded on a recording medium.

Although it has been described that the playback apparatus 500 shown inFIG. 38 manages information of the three discs 132-1 to 132-3 containedin the disc shelf 531, without limitation thereto, the number of discsmanaged by the playback apparatus 500 (the number of discs contained inthe disc shelf 531) is arbitrary, and obviously the number may be two orless or four or greater. Furthermore, the playback apparatus 500 maymanage information recorded on a plurality of discs 132 contained in aplurality of shelves.

Also when the playback apparatus 500 searches for an edit list, aprocess similar to the case of searching for a clip, described withreference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 39, is executed, so thatdescription thereof will be omitted.

Since the editing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 6 records the PROAV-IDinformation on the disc 132 so that it is included in the disc-metadatafile and the index file, a playback apparatus that plays back clips andedit list can also readily identify the disc 132 on which a target clipexists by executing a clip searching process using the PROAV ID, so thatthe load of the clip searching process can be reduced compared with thecase where a clip is directly searched for on the basis of the UMID.

Although the description has been given above in the context of caseswhere a clip or an edit list is searched for using a UMID and a PROAVID, without limitation thereto, for example, searching may be based on aPROAV ID in combination with frame-image information such as a file nameor a representative image. Also in this case, a process similar to theprocess described above is executed.

By recording a disc-metadata file including a PROAV ID or informationregarding a disc representative image on a disc as a recording medium ofclips and edit lists, the editing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 6 can morereadily identify information recorded on a recording medium. Also,playback apparatuses other than the editing apparatus 100 can morereadily identify information recorded on a recording medium using thedisc-metadata file.

Files in which the pieces of information described above are managed,and a method of using the same, will be described with reference to aspecific example shown in FIG. 40.

Clips and edit lists recorded on the disc 132, or information regardingthe clips and edit lists, are managed under a directory structure shownin FIG. 40, as described with reference to FIGS. 22 to 24.

A PROAV ID 551, which is an ID for identifying a format recorded on thedisc 132, is generated when an index file (INDEX.XML) 254 managed undera PROAV directory 252 is generated, and is stored in the index file(Index File) 254. Furthermore, the PROAV ID 551 is copied and the copyis stored in a disc-metadata file (DISCMETA.XML) 253.

The PROAV ID 551 is used when the disc-metadata file 253 inside the disc132 is retrieved from the outside of the disc 132, is then processed,and is then returned to the disc 132 (overwrite recording), to checkwhether the disc 132 is actually the original disc (the format has notchanged). Furthermore, the PROAV ID 551 is used as an ID in theprofessional disc (Professional Disc) layer in the disc-metadata file(Disc Meta) 253. That is, the disc-metadata file 253 has meaningfulinformation and the information becomes effective only on a disc havingthe PROAV ID (a disc for which the PROAV ID of the disc-metadata file253 matches the PROAV ID of the index file 254).

Although the description has been given above in the context of a casewhere a PROAV ID is used in the disc-metadata file 253, withoutlimitation thereto, for example, a PROAV ID may be used in metadata (NRTMeta) such as clip metadata or edit-list clip metadata, in a methodsimilar to the case of the disc-metadata file 253. In that case, aprocess similar to the case of the disc-metadata file described above isexecuted.

Setting information 552 of a disc representative image(disc-representative-image information), which is representative of allthe frame images recorded on the disc 132, is composed of arepresentative clip specified, for example, by the user, and informationspecifying a representative-frame number. When specification by the useror the like is absent (in the case of default setting), a clip recordedfirst on the disc 132 is selected as the representative clip, and abeginning frame number (i.e., “1”) is set as the representative framenumber (C0001-1).

When the disc representative image is set, for example, by the user, thedisc representative image is selectively set from clip representativeimages described later. Furthermore, the representative clip and therepresentative-frame number set as the disc representative image may beassociated either with an image data file (C0001V01.MXF) that is mainimage data or a low-resolution data file (C0001S01.MXF) 281 that isproxy image (substream) data. These pieces of data can be selected, forexample, by a handling device or software.

As opposed to the information regarding the entire format, in each clip,i.e., in a clip-information file (C0001C01.SMI) 271, a UMID 553 of theclip (Clip) is generated and stored when the clip-information file 271is generated.

The UMID 553 is also stored and managed in the index file 254.Furthermore, the UMID 553 of the clip is also stored in a clip-metadatafile (C0001M01.XML) 282 and a frame-metadata file (C0001R01.BIM) for thesame clip. In the clip-metadata file (NRT of Clip) 282 and theframe-metadata file (RT of Clip) 283, a clip that is referred to isrepresented by the UMID 553 of the clip.

Furthermore, the UMID 553 of the clip is also stored in an edit list(Edit List) regarding editing of the clip, i.e., in an edit-list file(E0002E01.5MI) 291. In the edit-list file 291, a clip that is referredto therefrom is represented by the UMID of the clip.

In the clip-metadata file 282 of each clip, clip-representative-imageinformation (representative-image information of Clip) 554, which isinformation regarding a representative image of the clip, is stored. Theclip-representative-image information 554 is composed of arepresentative-frame number of the clip specified, for example, by theuser. When specification by the user or the like is absent (in the caseof default setting), the beginning frame number (i.e., “1”) is set asthe representative frame number (C0001-1). Furthermore, therepresentative-frame number set as the clip representative image may beassociated with either an image data file 272 that is main image data ora low-resolution data file. These pieces of image data can be selected,for example, by a handling device or software.

For the clip described above, also in an edit list, i.e., in anedit-list file 291, an edit-list UMID (UMID of Edit List) 555 isgenerated and stored when the edit-list file 291 is generated. Theedit-list UMID 555 is also stored in an edit-list clip metadata(E0002M01.XML) 292. In the edit-list clip metadata (NRT o Edit List)292, an edit list (Edit List) that is referred to therefrom isrepresented by the edit-list UMID 555.

As described above, the pieces of information are respectively used indifferent manners for different purposes. Thus, the pieces ofinformation described above are used for achieving different goals.

Although the above description has been given in the context of caseswhere disc-metadata files or PROAV IDs are used in playback apparatusesthat play back clips or edit lists, without limitation thereto, forexample, as shown in FIG. 41, disc-metadata files or PROAV IDs can beused in recording and playback apparatuses that record and play backclips or edit lists. In FIG. 41, parts corresponding to those of theplayback apparatus 350 in FIG. 32 are designated by the same numerals,and descriptions thereof will be omitted as appropriate.

A recording and playback apparatus 600 shown in FIG. 41 is an apparatusthat can record and play back clips and edit lists, and the constructionthereof is such that the recording controller 116 and the timekeepingunit 118 of the editing apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 6 connected to thebus 117 are added to the construction of the playback apparatus 350shown in FIG. 32.

According to the construction, the playback apparatus executes processessimilarly to the playback apparatus 350 shown in FIG. 32 so that theuser can refer to the disc-metadata file or to search for a clip or anedit list using the PROAV ID. Furthermore, the playback apparatus 600can execute a disc-metadata file or the like including a PROAV ID orrepresentative-image information or the like on the disc 132 byexecuting a process similarly to the case of the editing apparatus 100shown in FIG. 6.

Thus, the playback apparatus 600 can improve the convenience of arecording medium so that information recorded on the recording mediumcan be identified more readily, and can more readily identify theinformation recorded on the recording medium.

As described above, an editing apparatus, a playback apparatus, or arecording and playback apparatus according to the present inventionexecute a process of recording on a recording medium a disc-metadatafile that serves as label information of data recorded on the recordingmedium or index file that serves as management information, or of usingthe recorded disc-metadata file, index file, or the like, and mayexecute in any method a process similar to the process, and may furtherexecute processes other than the process. Furthermore, the constructionof an editing apparatus, a playback apparatus, or a recording andplayback apparatus according to the present invention may beconstructions other than those described above, as long as such aprocess can be executed.

The series of processes described above may be executed by hardware orby software. When the series of processes is executed by software, theediting apparatus, playback apparatus, or recording and playbackapparatus described above is implemented by a personal computer shown inFIG. 42. In FIG. 42, parts corresponding to those shown in FIG. 6 aredesignated by the same numerals, and descriptions thereof will beomitted as appropriate.

Referring to FIG. 42, a CPU 651 of a personal computer 650 executesvarious processes according to programs stored in a ROM 652 or programsloaded from a storage unit 663 to a RAM 653. The RAM 653 also stores, asneeded, data or the like needed for the execution of various processesby the CPU 651.

The CPU 651, the ROM 652, and the RAM 653 are connected to each othervia a bus 654. The bus 654 is also connected to an input/outputinterface 660.

The input/output interface 660 is connected to an input unit 661including a keyboard, a mouse, and so forth, an output unit including adisplay implemented by a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) or an LCD (LiquidCrystal display), a speaker, and so forth, a storage unit 663implemented by a hard disc or the like, a communication unit implementedby a modem or the like, and a drive 126 on which the disc 132 ismounted. The communication unit 664 carries out communications vianetworks including the Internet.

The input/output interface 660 is also connected to a drive 665 asneeded, on which a removable medium 671 such as a magnetic disc, anoptical disc, a magneto-optical disc, or a semiconductor memory ismounted as needed, and computer programs read therefrom are installed onthe storage unit 663 as needed.

When the series of processes is executed by software, programsconstituting the software are installed from a network or a recordingmedium.

The recording medium is the removable medium 131 or the removable medium671 having recorded the programs thereon, provided separately from themain unit of the apparatus to provide the programs to the user, such asa magnetic disc (including a floppy disc), an optical disc (including aCD-ROM (Compact Disk-Read Only Memory) and a DVD (Digital VersatileDisk)), a magneto-optical disc (including an MD (Mini-Disk)), or asemiconductor memory, as shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 32, FIG. 35, FIG. 36,FIG. 38, FIG. 41, or FIG. 42. Alternatively, the recording medium isimplemented, for example, by the ROM 112 or the ROM 652 having theprograms recorded thereon or a hard disc included in the storage unit123 or the storage unit 663, provided to the user as included in themain unit of an apparatus.

In this specification, steps defining programs provided via a mediuminclude processes that are executed in parallel or individually and notnecessarily executed sequentially, as well as processes that areexecuted sequentially in the orders described.

In this specification, a system refers to the entirety of apparatusesformed by a plurality of apparatuses.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described above, according to the present invention, image data,audio data, or the like can be recorded on a recording medium.Particularly, the convenience of a recording medium can be improved; forexample, information recorded on a recording medium can be more readilyidentified.

1. An information processing apparatus for managing data that isrecorded on a recording medium, the information processing apparatuscomprising: copying means for copying an identifier for identifying aformat that is managed by a first file for managing information recordedon the recording medium, the identifier being included in the firstfile; creating means for creating a second file including the identifiercopied by the copying means and label information describing content ofthe data; and recording means for recording the second file created bythe creating means in the format on the recording medium, as a file thatis different from the first file.
 2. The information processingapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the label information includesinformation regarding a representative frame image representing all theframe images of image data included in the recording medium.
 3. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 2, furthercomprising setting means for setting the label information, wherein thecreating means creates the second file including the identifier copiedby the copying means and the label information set by the setting means.4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, whereinthe setting means selectively sets the representative frame image fromrepresentative frame images of respective clips recorded on therecording medium.
 5. The information processing apparatus according toclaim 3, wherein the setting means sets a beginning frame imae of abeginning clip as the representative frame image when no instruction forsetting the representative frame image is given.
 6. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising comparingmeans for comparing an identifier included in the second file with anidentifier included in the first file recorded on the recording medium,wherein the recording means records the second file in the format on therecording medium only when it is determined as a result of comparison bythe comparing means that the identifier included in the second filecoincides with the identifier included in the first file.
 7. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 6, furthercomprising: reading means for reading the second file from the recordingmedium; and updating means for updating the label information includedin the second file read by the reading means; wherein the comparingmeans compares an identifier included in the second file whose labelinformation has been updated by the updating means with an identifierincluded in the first file recorded on the recording means, and whereinthe recording means records the second file in the format on therecording medium only when it is determined as a result of comparison bythe comparing means that the identifier included in the second filecoincides with the identifier included in the first file
 8. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein therecording medium is an optical disc.
 9. The information processingapparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is asemiconductor memory.
 10. An information processing method for aninformation processing apparatus that manages data that is recorded on arecording medium, the information processing method comprising: acopying step of copying an identifier for identifying a format that ismanaged by a first file for managing information recorded on therecording mediu, the identifier being included in the first file; acreating step of creating a second file including the identifier copiedby processing in the copying step and label information describingcontent of the data; and a recording controlling step of exercisingcontrol so that the second file created by processing in the creatingstep is recorded in the format on the recording medium, as a file thatis different from the first file.
 11. A program for allowing a computerto execute processing for managing data that is recorded on a recordingmedium, the processing comprising: a copying step of copying anidentifier for identifying a format that is managed by a first file formanaging information recorded on the recording medium, the identifierbeing included in the first file; a creating step of creating a secondfile including the identified copied by processing in the copying stepand label information describing content of the data; and a recordingcontrolling step of exercising control so that the second file creted byprocessing in the creating step is recorded in the format on therecording medium, as a file that is different from the first file.
 12. Arecording medium having recorded thereon data that is played back by aninformation processing apparatus that manages data, wherein a first fileincluding an identifier for identifying a format on the recordingmedium, the first file serving to manage data in the format, and asecond file including an identifier that is the same as the identifier,the second file further including label information describing contentof the data in the format, are recorded in the format as mutuallydifferent files.